Schiit Sol Turntable Sneak-Peak

Discussion in 'Vinyl Nutjob World: Turntable and Related Gear' started by purr1n, Jul 19, 2017.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Schiit Sol Turntable Sneak-Peak
    1. It's at the Shiitr. Something to be aware of because it's a very raw prototype: IT MAY NOT BE SETUP PROPERLY. YOU BETTER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Jason and I had to do quite a few adjustments on it. If and when you arrive, there might NOT be qualified people to assist you. Besides the guys might not let you guys touch it.
    2. Something auspicious happened on my way back home. I picked up some kabobs for dinner at Dizin. The lady there, an older lady, saw one of the records in my care. "Bonnie Raitt!" she exclaimed. "I just got a phonograph!" Yes, the gods are smiling.
    3. The design exceeded expectations. Far exceeded them.
    4. I will slowly post bit by bit. To tease you guys.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 21, 2017
  2. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    I love you but you're such a f'ing tease
     
  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Lighting was shiitastic. Had to resort to my Nikon Df, so can't easily grab photos from Google photos. Going to give you guys a good rundown on the table. It's my understanding Schiit is shooting for release before end of the year. There are going to be a few options, from base level to advanced level. Maybe a speed controller at the advanced level. Maybe not. Proposed pricing will be crazy. Not totally crazy, but kind of nuts.
     
  4. Serious

    Serious Inquisitive Frequency Response Plot

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    Goddamnit. How does it sound?

    What was the rest of the system? What cart and phonostage were used?
     
  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Unipivot bearing

    VTA can be adjusted by moving the bearing up and down in the column. It is secured in place by a screw (on opposite side not directly seen).


    We can also see the cueing mechanism, which is SUPER NICE. The arm slides nicely on the black plastic. On many VPI tables where a fuzzy material is used, the armshaft tends to bind with this material and makes the arm twist instead of rotate laterally. Not so much the case here. Really good feel when the cueing arm is lowered. The arm gets slowly lowered down. The cueing mechanism needs to be lowered, there's little clearance with the arm when a record is playing (again, very much a prototype with rough edges).

    DSC_2077.JPG
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2017
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Patience Kemosahbee.
     
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Here is the other side. We can see the holes on the column to the screw that locks in the needle bearing to set the height / VTA.
    DSC_2084.JPG
    One thing you may have noticed. The arm counterweight is slung low for a low center of gravity near the rotation point. Because of this, the arm is surprisingly stable for a unipivot. The VPI arms wobble more. Although it could just be that I am used to unipivot arms. Note that the column housing the arm bearing is part of the cast aluminum skeletal frame. Solid stuff between main platter bearing and arm bearing. No armboards = no micro-movements. You can argue it's even better than some existing designs because we don't even have a separate armbase with its own set of screws into a plinth.
    DSC_2083.JPG
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2017
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    DSC_2082.JPG
    Don't laugh. Stacks of yellow Post-It notes to precisely level the plinth with the motor. Again, a few kinks to work out given the prototype nature of this table. The table sounded like it was running a bit slow. The belt was not ideal. Schiit plans to use a flat belt for production. I expect some gains with the flat belt because I'm sure there was some slip with this makeshift belt.

    Schiit Mani was the phonostage. Nagaoka orange / yellow cart was used. I think it's the MP-110. Very much the Nagaoka sound. Full bodied and rich. Maybe a bit mid-centric, but not rolled off in the treble or bass. System was Freya into Vidar with the Salk speakers. Sounded exactly like how I would have expected the system to with a competent source, given the sub-low bass limitations of the Salks.

    My greatest fear with such a cart would be bloated mid-bassy rolled-off sound. None of this. Stability and blackness where actually impressive. Transient response quite good - only a MC cart will do better. The table destroys any of the sub $1000 Pro-Jects and any of the Rega 3 series. Sounded better than VPI Scout with acrylic platter. Closer to VPI Classic than to the rest, although this table has a different sound than the VPI Classics. That's how good this table is. Reasonably tight bass (which could probably get much better). No roll-off. I could be happy if this was my only table. And keep this in mind: nothing much else was optimized. A better phonostage could have been used. Post-It notes aren't exact a good way to couple or de-couple to a rack. No center weight was used. The belt was shitty. The motor pod lacked mass.

    My assessment is that an incredible amount of smarts and engineering were put into play for all the parts to work greater than their sum. This is a very well executed skeletal design. No plinth coloration or resonance as commonly heard on those turntables with low mass plinths (which I hate).
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2017
  9. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Was the phono a current Mani or a prototype next gen Mani?
     
  10. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    That brass colored weight adjusts azimuth. Yes, so easy! VPI after all these years still can't figure out how to make it easy. Schiit does it right on first try. This is ingenious and a godsend!
    DSC_2070.JPG
    BTW, there is also anti-skate (with a weight and line) like Pro-Ject. not used here.


    I'm not aware of any next gen Mani. And if I were, I could neither confirm nor deny. It is a current Mani.
     
  11. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Here is a closeup of the cart, headshell, and armshaft.
    DSC_2073.JPG
    It's actually a 12" arm. The headshell offers a lot of adjust-ability to accommodate different alignments. I saw a a Lofgren alignment printout underneath the mat. This was a printout from one of Conrad Hoffman's programs here: http://www.conradhoffman.com/chsw.htm

    The armshaft is carbon fiber. Not the cheapass fake plastic carbon, but the "ceramic" feeling carbon fiber. I hope that Schiit makes this arm with a base available to everybody. Getting sick of $2000 arms and arm bases, especially dead sounding arms made from 3D epoxy or whatever.
     
  12. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Did I say inverted bearing? How the heck did they pull this off with a fairly thin platter? This is how. It's fricking brilliant! I would have never thought of this idea in a million years.

    DSC_2080.JPG

    Here is the underside of the platter. The production version will have ribs underneath. This prototype is smooth. There is a column attached to the underside of the platter to accept the inverted bearing. Some high tech plastic sleeve is used for ensure a snug fit and low rolling resistance.
    DSC_2079.JPG
     
  13. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    That's pretty much it.
     
  14. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    How much will it cost though?
    Sub 1k?
    Even less?

    I may be able to feasibly afford it after saving up, just sold a bunch of stuff on ebay....
     
  15. dmckean44

    dmckean44 In a Sherwood S6040CP relationship

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    I'm impressed.

    You won't have to save much if they hit their target price.
     
  16. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Like others, I heard of it being around the cost of a Bifrost Multibit or Gungnir DS depending upon options and levels. Just what I heard. I cannot confirm nor deny anything else other than these things are always subject to change depending upon how final tweaks affect production costs.
     
  17. winders

    winders boomer

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    Damn! I got rid of all my vinyl when I moved from Pasadena to Mountain View many years ago. I had a bunch of 70's vinyl...damn! I even have a spot available at the top my rack.....
     
  18. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    The 12" arm alone makes me very interested.
     
  19. Daveheart

    Daveheart Friend

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    That Bifrost to Gungnir pricing goal was from Mike on Head-fi. Still, where he wants to price it and where it ends up are, of course, two very different things.
     
  20. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I've never known Mike or Jason to publicly or privately throw out numbers and be very far off. At most, I think the Yggdrasil ended up being $200 more than they wanted to price it, but that projection was super early, like two years before its release. Generally numbers don't change that much when it's that close to production.
     

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