Rockport to Release Mother of all Turntables

Wow sign me up. I'm sure it's the quietest TT of all time.

The alignment laser fires vollies at pets, wife's butts and flying insects to chase them out of the listening room.

I hope it comes with a forklift to install it.

audioarcher said:

I hope it comes with a forklift to install it.

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or a crane.

This is so old that the price is even now reasonable

Would you rather the compressor suck or blow?

JackD201 said:

Would you rather the compressor suck or blow?

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Don't know, but with silicon breasts that would make it a complete living arrangement.

cjfrbw said:

Don't know, but with silicon breasts that would make it a complete living arrangement.

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You still would have to deal with the 1000 lbs "platter"

FrantzM said:

You still would have to deal with the 1000 lbs "platter"

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Does my platter look too fat? Oh, don't forget the cup holders.

Lmao!!!!

The real joke is that the Super Rockport actually exists (without the breasts). Three were made between 2011 and 2012 as a special order for a UK based dealer.Every item on them had been reworked compared with a Sirius Three. I've heard them....unforgettable, not least the price.Think around one million dollars, with no real dealer mark up.
Sadly, that's the end, because the consultant employed to design and carry out the work, died late in 2012.I doubt there will ever again be a deck like it....the Bugatti Veyron of turntables, a slightly mad ,no expense spared, assault on the summit of the high end. Next time I go round, i'l take some pictures.

paskinn said:

The real joke is that the Super Rockport actually exists (without the breasts). Three were made between 2011 and 2012 as a special order for a UK based dealer.Every item on them had been reworked compared with a Sirius Three. I've heard them....unforgettable, not least the price.Think around one million dollars, with no real dealer mark up.
Sadly, that's the end, because the consultant employed to design and carry out the work, died late in 2012.I doubt there will ever again be a deck like it....the Bugatti Veyron of turntables, a slightly mad ,no expense spared, assault on the summit of the high end. Next time I go round, i'l take some pictures.

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does a photo of it exist

paskinn said:

The real joke is that the Super Rockport actually exists (without the breasts). Three were made between 2011 and 2012 as a special order for a UK based dealer.Every item on them had been reworked compared with a Sirius Three. I've heard them....unforgettable, not least the price.Think around one million dollars, with no real dealer mark up.
Sadly, that's the end, because the consultant employed to design and carry out the work, died late in 2012.I doubt there will ever again be a deck like it....the Bugatti Veyron of turntables, a slightly mad ,no expense spared, assault on the summit of the high end. Next time I go round, i'l take some pictures.

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Wow, that is fascinating. Do you have any idea how these would compare to say an SME 30/12 or TechDas AF1 or some other really good current designs with which we might be familiar?

I'l get some pics....it does not look any different to a series three, but the paint is even better.There are two of the three still together.I doubt that the owner, although a dealer, could bear to sell them.He just loves Rockport decks.I will try to get him to post full technical detais here .The third one is with a chap in central London.
As for other decks, it is so far ahead of anything else I have heard that it is a bit of a shock. It has a complete lack of any feeling of being 'reproduced', sadly my SME 30 12 sounds almost broken when compared. Hard to explain, but the first few seconds tell you that something very special is happening. I doubt that any other deck has ever been built like this, `quite literally without any consideration of cost.That is why it could never exist as a commercial proposition.It really is one man's dream made real .As for the Continum (which he also owns )....not even close. It is not easy to explain the weird feeling of the deck simply not being there.

paskinn said:

I'l get some pics....it does not look any different to a series three, but the paint is even better.There are two of the three still together.I doubt that the owner, although a dealer, could bear to sell them.He just loves Rockport decks.I will try to get him to post full technical detais here .The third one is with a chap in central London.
As for other decks, it is so far ahead of anything else I have heard that it is a bit of a shock. It has a complete lack of any feeling of being 'reproduced', sadly my SME 30 12 sounds almost broken when compared. Hard to explain, but the first few seconds tell you that something very special is happening. I doubt that any other deck has ever been built like this, `quite literally without any consideration of cost.That is why it could never exist as a commercial proposition.It really is one man's dream made real .As for the Continum (which he also owns )....not even close. It is not easy to explain the weird feeling of the deck simply not being there.

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I'm surprised that there wasn't more news of this. Are you saying that Andy didn't design it

paskinn said:

I'l get some pics....it does not look any different to a series three, but the paint is even better.There are two of the three still together.I doubt that the owner, although a dealer, could bear to sell them.He just loves Rockport decks.I will try to get him to post full technical detais here .The third one is with a chap in central London.
As for other decks, it is so far ahead of anything else I have heard that it is a bit of a shock. It has a complete lack of any feeling of being 'reproduced', sadly my SME 30 12 sounds almost broken when compared. Hard to explain, but the first few seconds tell you that something very special is happening. I doubt that any other deck has ever been built like this, `quite literally without any consideration of cost.That is why it could never exist as a commercial proposition.It really is one man's dream made real .As for the Continum (which he also owns )....not even close. It is not easy to explain the weird feeling of the deck simply not being there.

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That is quite an observation. Was this in a different system context, or did you hear your 30/12 in the same system as the Super Rockport? I'm curious because for a 30/12 to sound almost broken is quite a statement. I'd be interested to know what other equipment this dealer would have in such a system. It must sound incredible. Thank you for sharing.

Steve Williams said:

I'm surprised that there wasn't more news of this. Are you saying that Andy didn't design it

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Andy did not design the power supply or speed controller.

it's mostly a re-work of the power supply and speed controller by it's original designer for incrementally better speed control. better technology is now avaliable than was in the early 90's when the original was designed. the arm, platter and plinth are the same. not sure about the air suspension....maybe it's better too along with improved air supply regulation. think of it as 'hot-rodding' the Sirius III.

this is what was explained to me on the phone by the owner of these Rockports (i use to own one of the Sirius III's in his collection). i've not seen these machines or pictures.

It was never a commercial enterprise; rather a no holds barred attempt to see what could be done if you ignored all normal financial factors. Andy Payor agreed to the project, but the actual design work and engineering was done by the consultant, a world-class expert on air bearing technology.The dealer in London paid for all the work, and co-ordinated it.A really big project but not one intended for the 'market'. It was more a personal obsession with what might be possible. The consultant died, quite young, late last year. He had been at the heart of the Rockport turntable story...a story of personal obsession which, years ago, virtually drove Rockport out of business. Since then it has settled and become a more stable company which makes speakers.....not decks. Turntables were a magnificent dream which ended up costing Rockport, not making a profit.
It's an amazing story but people closely involved don't talk about it much, I think that for some of them, the whole story is a bit painful . But the three 'Super decks' exist and they are cherished. it is not really fair to compare them with a commercial deck, no matter how exualted. The costs are on a different scale.
One of the three machines was made out of an older Sirius, but stripped down to the bare chassis, and completely rebuilt with new and improved components. It isn't simply an 'upgrade'. The other two decks were from new, including the chassis. You could say they are 2012 iterations of an idea from the 1990s, massively upgraded with the latest technology. Many of the key parts bear no real resemblance to what was available twenty years before. Think of a 1990 Porsche and then a 2012 Porsche. You could call a 2012 model an upgrade, but I wouldn't. It looks similar but is actually a new thing.
I know the owner sees these three decks as a tribute to the consultant whose technical skill made the Rockports a reality. As I said, it is a a strange, and rather magnificent, attempt at the ultimate. I have heard virtually every iteration of the Rockport story, and I have also heard a wide range of commercial decks. As far as I can tell, and given that personal judgement is always involved, the super Rockports stand alone; given the truly crazy costs of the project, and the enormous experience of those involved, that is not so odd. Essentially it is a demonstration of what can be achieved if you abandon commercial criteria...which, of course, you normally can't do.

Unobtanium at really high costium to make everybody else audio nervosium.