I was fortunate to have my friends Bobby and Joe stop by with the AF1 titanium upper platter. I currently own the duralumin and stainless platters. After doing comparisons using the same music for all three I would describe the differences as follows.
Duralumin: warmer mids, some mid bass bloat.
Stainless: deeper more extended bass, leaner mid bass, more extended treble with quite a bit more presence/ambience over the duralumin. Some may say the stainless is more hi-fi/edgy in the treble area. Not necessarily a bad thing for ears 50 years old plus. It also has a more forward presentation compared to duralumin and titanium.
Titanium: it appears to have the best of both worlds...richer/warmer mids with excellent presence/ambience in the treble without any hint of edginess. The bass is not as deep as the stainless but has no mid bass bloat like the duralumin platter along with a noticeably wider soundstage compared to the other two.
So if I had to live with only one platter, it would be titanium. I cannot however justify the cost of admission for the titanium platter. At $12,000+....it's just too expensive for it's incremental improvement in performance.
I do understand why the cost is so high as titanium is very difficult and expensive to machine.
Edit: don't quote me on the price of the titanium platter...all I know...it's more than $10k but less than $20k.
Duralumin: warmer mids, some mid bass bloat.
Stainless: deeper more extended bass, leaner mid bass, more extended treble with quite a bit more presence/ambience over the duralumin. Some may say the stainless is more hi-fi/edgy in the treble area. Not necessarily a bad thing for ears 50 years old plus. It also has a more forward presentation compared to duralumin and titanium.
Titanium: it appears to have the best of both worlds...richer/warmer mids with excellent presence/ambience in the treble without any hint of edginess. The bass is not as deep as the stainless but has no mid bass bloat like the duralumin platter along with a noticeably wider soundstage compared to the other two.
So if I had to live with only one platter, it would be titanium. I cannot however justify the cost of admission for the titanium platter. At $12,000+....it's just too expensive for it's incremental improvement in performance.
I do understand why the cost is so high as titanium is very difficult and expensive to machine.
Edit: don't quote me on the price of the titanium platter...all I know...it's more than $10k but less than $20k.
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