After giving a Pete Riggle Woody tonearm the go ahead last January,
Cheers,
-Clark
Clark
What do you think of the Woody tonearm? I am thinking of getting one as a future upgrade for my new table
Debra
Debra,
The woody is sublime. I've also sold Pete a decent sized stock of highly figured mahogany that's to be used beyond my order with him so that he can use the same wood for other folks. Some really special stuff, but I forgot to take pictures prior to delivering it.
I'm old friends of Pete and the eastern washington crew he rolls with and have heard his woody through his and others' systems many times over the years. I'll probably just use a stock DL-103 at least initially as its been the cart ive been happiest with on his arm so far. For me, it is a purchase of the ultimate tonearm for *me*. Highly musical, well engineered but not over engineered, with woodwork and finish quality (true french polish) that will humble us for many years to come. Also, Pete is really good about giving advice on system setup to optimize global performance. These are the same values with which we run our company so its only natural that the woody is the tonearm for us.
Greg - the 9" feastrex Monster Alnico holds the world record for the largest alnico magnetic circuit attached to a 8"-9" fullrange driver. 30kgs/pr. They are really beautiful sounding - as they really dont skimp on parts quality. Alnico grade 5-7, and the circuit is charged as an entire piece after assembly. The primary circuit is hydrogen annealed pure iron, the pole piece and top plate (the voice coil gap) are capped with pieces of hydrogen annealed permendur. The sound is heavy, "blue," (synesthesia) and extremely pure and warm.
Granted, there are other fullrange drivers out there that use permendur, but Feastrex has a custom mettalurgist to make theirs... And it is actually a rather large company, not a cottage industry mettalurgist. Also, not purchased from chinese rare earth alloy market (which typically gives no guarantee for purity and ratios of metals in the alloy.). Suffice it to say, that the folks out there who have any doubts that the approach of using a widerange/fullrange single driver works (for the reasons of dynamics and FR and all the typical gripes), really owes this class of FR driver a listen.
Shoot - Ill give a free pair of kick ass cabinets for D9 MA to the person who supplies me with a pair of the drivers to keep for myself. (Buy two pair drivers, one pair returns to you installed in cabinets). They are currently being sold at a reduced price because of Feastrex's coming changeover to an all field coil lineup.
Cheers,
Clark
