One Amigo Visits Utah To Hear 5 Reference Turntables-My Step Beyond

CKKeung

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Jun 17, 2011
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He's not picking on the AF1, it was designed as the next best thing and professionals like Nishikawa know exactly where to make the compromises that will only show up in direct comparison with an AS or an EMT 927 which are still the pinnacle of turntable design, no platform will bridge that gap. Even so the AF-1 is among the best made today, maybe even the best, but from my conversations with them AF-0 will be their statement product and the one to watch for.
david

Hi David & Steve,

May you tell us more about the American Sound turntable?
Audiophiles in Hong Kong do not know much about this brand.

Many thanks!

CK
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Hi CK

First off if you do a search of the table little if anything comes up. Suffice it to say there are two known ones join existence and David owns them both with one out on permanent loan to the person who suggested he look into finding one in his pursuit of "the step beyond"

The table is as solid as the rock of Gibraltar and IIRC weighs 550 lbs. It is a solid slab of milled stainless steel. IIRC it had a leather mat. It obviously accepts 4 arms all of which for David are the SME 3012. i was not picking a fight with Christian as I really love the TechDas AF1 but when we played the same record on the TechDas and then the American Sound it honestly was no contest. The sound of the American Sound was much tighter and better defined, more meat on the bone from top to bottom but as Christian said, "good luck in finding one"
 

ddk

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May 18, 2013
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Utah
Hi David & Steve,

May you tell us more about the American Sound turntable?
Audiophiles in Hong Kong do not know much about this brand.

Many thanks!

CK

Hi CK,

It looks like very few people actually know anything about it including the Japanese audiophiles. Not much is known about their origin just that the company made only one product and its from the late 70's. Its air floating like the Micro Seiki tables but way simpler yet more sophisticated and superior sounding. I'm finishing up an article on this table and will post it this weekend with many pictures, stay tuned.

david
 

CKKeung

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Jun 17, 2011
3,053
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Hong Kong
Hi CK,
It looks like very few people actually know anything about it including the Japanese audiophiles. Not much is known about their origin just that the company made only one product and its from the late 70's. Its air floating like the Micro Seiki tables but way simpler yet more sophisticated and superior sounding. I'm finishing up an article on this table and will post it this weekend with many pictures, stay tuned.
david

Hi David and Steve,

Thanks for the info and photo!
Eager to read David's article on it!

:)
 

number95

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Got there Thursday afternoon and left Monday. Heard everything except the Goldmund Reference and the Micro Seiki SZ-1t, SX-8000II & SX-8000

Steve, four days and spin no rocks at all?
 

andromedaaudio

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Anyway very interesting story after all , a wooden horn system built in 1954 in Germany - Bionor KL-L433 - by Klangfilm GmbH which outperforms todays models ( in some areas?) made out of modern composite materials , the only thing i could find was this link
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/klangfilm_bionor_kl_l433.html
An open baffle woofer system with good bass :confused: never heard that yet
Do you have some more info on the units used freq range for example membrane material of the Hochtonhorn KL-L 302 and the two bass speakers , if i understand correctly there is 1 horn in use for the mids and highs ??

and i found this review : http://www.inner-magazines.com/news/90/72/Klangfilm-Bionor/in which the strongpoint was mentioned as :

my impression is that this speaker manages to recreate the true timbre and dynamic impact of real instruments like very few others.
 
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ddk

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May 18, 2013
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Utah
Anyway very interesting story after all , a wooden horn system built in 1954 in Germany - Bionor KL-L433 - by Klangfilm GmbH which outperforms todays models ( in some areas?) made out of modern composite materials,

The upper horn is cast metal, not wood.

An open baffle woofer system with good bass :confused: never heard that yet
Do you have some more info on the units used freq range for example membrane material of the Hochtonhorn KL-L 302 and the two bass speakers , if i understand correctly there is 1 horn in use for the mids and highs ??

Its primarily a bass horn with an open baffle, you have to remember that the SOTA back then was 50hz which is really more than enough and very simple to extend a bit more if you know what you're doing with the right subs. the woofer membrane is paper, but extremely thin and light.

and i found this review : http://www.inner-magazines.com/news/90/72/Klangfilm-Bionor/in which the strongpoint was mentioned as :

my impression is that this speaker manages to recreate the true timbre and dynamic impact of real instruments like very few others.

Here's a translated excerpt from a Klangfilm brochure;

"The Loudspeaker Assembly comprises a permanent dynamic type high-frequency with air pression system. The high-frequency speaker is equipped with a special-type exponential horn known as the KLANGFILM Spherical Wave Horn which distributes the audio output uniformly and free of resonance over a wide angle….Advantage of the KLANGFILM Spherical Wave Horn is its high efficiency, its radiated acoustic power being obtained with relatively low amplifier output which contributes to increase the tonal quality…"

"…As the audio range of the Bionor Loudspeaker Assembly extends far beyond he higher frequencies attainable with optical sound, it is particularly suitable for expanding existing theater systems to handle magnetic sound and stereophony.""



Bionor-1.jpg


Bionor-2.jpg


Bionor-3.jpg


Bionor-4.jpg


david
 
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andromedaaudio

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Thanks , danke schon , i speak fluent german as wel:D .
Klang film (Sound - film ) , originally made for (movie)theaters
I can translate the Original german brochure, (a siemens company) , not today but in time
 

ddk

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May 18, 2013
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Utah
Thanks , danke schon , i speak fluent german as wel:D .
Klang film (Sound - film ) , originally made for (movie)theaters
I can translate the Original german brochure, a siemens company

I thought you'd like it and German wouldn't be a problem for you!

david
 

andromedaaudio

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From what i understood they made 2 biggermodels for bigger theaters , euronor 2 and euronor junior , the bionor is for smaller theaters
The FR curve is from 45 -15000 hz , well beyond what was needed for the klangfilm sound ( movie sound) of those days
 
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ddk

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From what i understood they made 2 biggermodels for bigger theaters , euronor 2 and euronor junior , the bionor is for smaller theaters

Yes, the Euronor and the Euronor Junior. They have the same drivers just more of them. I don't know of any that survived because of their size so never heard one to know how their bass horns sound, they go a bit lower without the baffle. Anyway the specs are very close to the Bionor.

Euronor J-3.jpg


Euronor J-4.jpg


Euronor J-5.jpg


This one is from another Klangfilm book, better picts.


Euronor J-1.jpg


Euronor J-2.jpg


david
 

andromedaaudio

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One of the keypoints in their design seems to be the kugelwellentrichter versus the exponentialtrichter used in other designs , their "kugelwellenhorndesign is a horn that expands much wider then other designs , design b versus horn a as seen in the drawing , this gives a resonanzfree radiation and natural sound .
 

ddk

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May 18, 2013
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Utah
One of the keypoints in their design seems to be the kugelwellentrichter versus the exponentialtrichter used in other designs , their "kugelwellenhorndesign is a horn that expands much wider then other designs , design b versus horn a as seen in the drawing , this gives a resonanzfree radiation and natural sound .
The horn design is unique dimensionally shorter than anything I've seen from JBL, Altec, Vitavox, etc. also horn & driver build quality is typical German tank.
 
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marslo

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What an inspiring audiophiles journeys, this of Steve and especially those of David.
Thank you for sharing. Can't wait to retire;)

Cheers

Mariusz
 

microstrip

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Hi CK

First off if you do a search of the table little if anything comes up. Suffice it to say there are two known ones join existence and David owns them both with one out on permanent loan to the person who suggested he look into finding one in his pursuit of "the step beyond"

The table is as solid as the rock of Gibraltar and IIRC weighs 550 lbs. It is a solid slab of milled stainless steel. IIRC it had a leather mat. It obviously accepts 4 arms all of which for David are the SME 3012. i was not picking a fight with Christian as I really love the TechDas AF1 but when we played the same record on the TechDas and then the American Sound it honestly was no contest. The sound of the American Sound was much tighter and better defined, more meat on the bone from top to bottom but as Christian said, "good luck in finding one"

Does it have an air bearing platter? If so, what is the operation air pressure?
 

ack

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It is an air bearing platter and I don't know the air pressure

Fascinating write-up Steve and congratulations ddk. Never heard of the American Sound turntable. One of the "mods" in my turntable is that the platter also floats in an air bubble that I have been able to capture through various techniques, but the platter is one way to get noise into the cartridge, the other is the arm base - and how do you float the arm... this is where an isolation platform, as rockitman says, should make an improvement.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I had a long talk with David about air suspension as well as the air in the feet of the AF1. What I found fascinating is that David said that even air can add a "sound" to the system.

Peter, I can tell you that for my ears The American Sound with that Neumann DST cartridge bested any other table or cartridge combination David threw at me over those 4 days. The sheer weight of it is fascinating
 
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