New Kronos review!
- Thread starter asiufy
- Start date
Bearing is crucial and in that regard my vote goes to AF. That said counter platter might work better for a belt drive design in terms of stability. It might be the case the reviewer has been referring to a darker background. My two cents.
A Happy New Year to everyone.
I don't think it works that way. Maybe a typical industry accommodation price.
I don't think there are modern standards sufficiently rigorous to measure primary turntable attributes: speed stability, speed accuracy, quiet/noise.
Wrt counter-rotation I'm curious why no review features a comparison with the counter-rotating platter disconnected.
I know the reviewer & the system very well. Is Kronos Pro , quiet ? Yes . Is it quieter than AFO ? To his ears yes. To my ears ???
He bought the Kronos Pro at a good price . Anyway this review is merely his opinion. Just treat it as informative & not necessary conclusive . After all it's different tonearms & different cartridges for all 3 TT. To me , at least it is better than the ridiculous video review who based his conclusion on listening to 3 different syst at 3 different place & come to the conclusion that it's the most dynamic TT in the world - that is certainly a bought review . Again is an opinion only
Here's the price.
The Kronos Pro is a limited edition run of 250 units. There is no "standard" Kronos, or maybe you can consider the Sparta to be that.
How big is the difference between Sparta and this? Asiufy, we both like Kronos, Avantgarde, Koetsu...you really should swap your dac to Lampi
I look forward to Alex's reply.
Thanks, I guess I should have been more specific.
Is the Kronos Pro Ltd $35,000 the same turntable as the original Kronos table released in 2011 for $28,000 and had several reviews in 2012?. There was no mention of Pro Ltd back then. The Kronos web site makes no mention of Pro Ltd but still has 250 as the production run.
Is this just a name change for marketing purpose or has there been improvements since the original release?
Cheers
The counter rotating platters worry me somewhat.
Although I am not a physicist surely any inherent rotational issues in a non-perfect world would be additive.
I would welcome anyone with greater physics knowledge than mine to weigh in.
Although I am not a physicist surely any inherent rotational issues in a non-perfect world would be additive.
I would welcome anyone with greater physics knowledge than mine to weigh in.
How big is the difference between Sparta and this? Asiufy, we both like Kronos, Avantgarde, Koetsu...you really should swap your dac to Lampi
why? how does it compare with MSB higher end offerings?
I've heard it and it is a wonderful turntable. I've heard it it several times at shows going back to CES 4 years ago, then at Caelin's house in a superb listening room and finally at Alma Music. On each of those occasions i was drawn into the music and it remained on my list of turntables to consider. I have no comment only because of my ignorance regarding the counter rotating lower platter but suffice it to say the sound floor was indeed very low and the sound quality was excellent. I even had a lengthy call with Louis Desjardins regarding his table.
When all was said and done however I went in a different direction as I wanted vacuum clamp down and the ability to have more than one arm mounted. I was also under the impression Louis was working on a better motor which was going to improve the sonic quality by a huge amount however his design would never include vacuum and only have one arm. I did hear the Black Beauty with the ZYX UNIverse cartridge and it was terrific. So for my ears I heard nothing wrong with the turntable at all
I've heard both in excellent systems, but like you Doc, am not enough of an analog expert to decipher the sonic differences. where is Gary???
I've had a simple Brinkmann Bardo for two years and don't have the need to go further anyways
I've had a simple Brinkmann Bardo for two years and don't have the need to go further anyways
I own both. Bought both of them used and set them up myself. The Kronos with a SME V12 and the AFO with the Graham Elite. Both arms are with the Clearaudio GF, the one on the AFO not yet broken in, so a real comparison is not possible.
All the same, I find it impossible to say which combination is " better ", because I like the sound of both. More of that later though. I heartlily dislike the use of words like better here, because what is the reference? Better according to what? I think, when we use that word or similar, some point of reference should be given.
That said, l find that in my rig, compared to the sound of the AFO, the Kronos sounds richer, more full bodied, more fleshed out. Often I find myself turning down the volume, when listening to the same piece, which was on the Techdas before, because the rendering of the Kronos seemed louder. As I had noted, the cart here is fully broken in. Stability of the Kronos is first class. Long drawn out notes or decays on violin or piano are absolutely stable.
(I am cursed with absolute pitch )
Same with the Techdas of course. The absence of spurious noise is uncanny. Tics and pops are somehow moved unto another plane, something the Kronos cannot do as well.
Listening to the AFO with material I know well, I find that the entire information is there, nothing missing to my ears, before a background of a silence, which lets me think of good digital. Sometimes I find the sound a tad dry, but then this cart has only few hours on its back. When I take the same LP over to the Kronos Ltd, I get the same information, no new mikrodetail added, I find, but the whole presentation as if painted with a bigger brush. The soudstage moves forward, but with the same fairly good definition as with the Techdas before.
From what I have described, one would expect, that the Kronos gives more bloom on instruments. Not so, here I find the AFO a little closer to when I listen to a real violin for example, perhaps because of this incredible silent background, which the Kronos cannot match.
I like both setups, find none " better ", simply very different.
With the one Music is beautifully rendered in say a hall with good reverb and you sit close to the music, with the other, you are placed a few rows more back snd the hall seems a tad dry. Wonder what the Techdas combo will sound like, when the cart is fully broken in.
All the same, I find it impossible to say which combination is " better ", because I like the sound of both. More of that later though. I heartlily dislike the use of words like better here, because what is the reference? Better according to what? I think, when we use that word or similar, some point of reference should be given.
That said, l find that in my rig, compared to the sound of the AFO, the Kronos sounds richer, more full bodied, more fleshed out. Often I find myself turning down the volume, when listening to the same piece, which was on the Techdas before, because the rendering of the Kronos seemed louder. As I had noted, the cart here is fully broken in. Stability of the Kronos is first class. Long drawn out notes or decays on violin or piano are absolutely stable.
(I am cursed with absolute pitch )
Same with the Techdas of course. The absence of spurious noise is uncanny. Tics and pops are somehow moved unto another plane, something the Kronos cannot do as well.
Listening to the AFO with material I know well, I find that the entire information is there, nothing missing to my ears, before a background of a silence, which lets me think of good digital. Sometimes I find the sound a tad dry, but then this cart has only few hours on its back. When I take the same LP over to the Kronos Ltd, I get the same information, no new mikrodetail added, I find, but the whole presentation as if painted with a bigger brush. The soudstage moves forward, but with the same fairly good definition as with the Techdas before.
From what I have described, one would expect, that the Kronos gives more bloom on instruments. Not so, here I find the AFO a little closer to when I listen to a real violin for example, perhaps because of this incredible silent background, which the Kronos cannot match.
I like both setups, find none " better ", simply very different.
With the one Music is beautifully rendered in say a hall with good reverb and you sit close to the music, with the other, you are placed a few rows more back snd the hall seems a tad dry. Wonder what the Techdas combo will sound like, when the cart is fully broken in.
Last edited:
Thank you for your observations and clearing up the low noise issue I had with the reviewer regarding the noise floor and damping of pops and ticks of the AFO vs the Kronos. I have not heard the Kronos and only have a Clearaudio Master Innovation magnetic drive turntable to compare. It seems to flesh out music similarly to the Kronos as you describe, but it can't touch the AFO's seemingly noiseless background and damping of record surface anomalies (pops & tics).
How does a turntable / arm / cartridge combination perform this rather nest trick of dampening of record surface anomalies (pops & tics) without sacrificing music details?
The sound of classical piano ( Glenn Gould Beethoven rb remastered ) ripped and fed into Request The Beast and from there into the Diamond Dac IV via i2s was close to the sound of the AFO. With the TT there was a touch more air. ( The LP was also a digital remaster ) With the Kronos, the entire presentation moved forward, the sound was more lush, the piano filled the entire stage. The AFO and the digital seemed more taken back, the sound within the stage more realistic to my ear.
Similar threads
 | Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator |  | Ron Resnick Site Co-Owner | Administrator |  | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |