Hello David, this post has me very intrigued. Could you elaborate a bit on the statement in bold? Did you start a small production run of these based on the set of plans that you have? Will they be similar to the one that is in your collection and the table that everyone raves about? Will they be commercially available or will the handful go to a select group of "friends and family"? I'm afraid to even ask about the cost, and I'm sure it is a closely held secret.
Hi Peter,
There already was an upgraded version designed by AS when the Japanese tt market collapsed so it never went into production, it's this new model that I've been working on for the last two years to get made. This version is slightly bigger and heavier than the old one with a modified platter design. The new motor and motor controller are absolutely unique and are key elements of the overall sound. No servo no feedback loop, synchronous AC motor, 33/45/78 powerful and with enough torque to keep constant speed for thread drive even with this massive platter. I'm afraid to say it but the combination of the new motor/motor controller and the built in upgrades will leave old one in the dust and that one is already head and shoulders above everything else. I know this because the first batch of the motors are already here, I was expecting an improvement over the original motor but never to the extent that I'm hearing, it's night and day. Unfortunately due to it's nature the entire production run will be limited to 4-6 units, each one individually hand machined. There are two coming in late November to early December, another two are planned for March-April and hopefully one or two sometime after that which I'll keep for myself so at least a couple will be available for sale. The first one is reserved by one of our friends here, he can spill the beans if he wants to now
. Given today's market costs pricing is quite sane for what this turntable is, direct to end user will be in the AF-1 range but sonically and ergonomically it's in a very extra ordinary class. You might be interested in this there's also a smaller model coming, the AS-800. I already heard the prototype it's about similar size and with very comparable sound to the Micro Seiki SX-8000 mkII. Unfortunately this will also be a very limited run of only 8 for next year because they're also individually hand machined like the big ones, pricing for the AS-800 will be in the Kronos Pro range with motor controller.
david