Rockport Technologies announces new owner

108CY

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Knowing what tim sheridhan put into the system 111 as a young inspired designer who had years of knowledge of motor controlling and working with Nasa, and the medical industry, created a scientfic body who determined international standards on speed rotation, the Rockport turntable could just not be created again. Just looking in the motor controlling box sends shivers down my spine of what actually went into it was a technological marvel. Andy was very fortunate to have met tim and they created a great partnership and at the time andy was prepared to take a basic margin and have no dealer network hence why it had a low price which sounded high in 1997. The cost of the motor alone today is totally insane today. Tim actually took very little financial reward for the design as did andy hence why no one would ever wish to go that way again far easier to purchase a large papst of maxon motor and create a simple controller and power supply. Which no doubt can sound interesting in its own right.

While there are some great turntables today and far simpler to execute with superb engineering on a sheer level of insanity when I have show the Rockport engineered solution to any advanced areospace engineers and a someone who is involved large scale rocket launching projects say it was a exceptionally well engineered beyond what you would expect in audio but hideously expensive. When one sees the way the audio industry has to work today it would be totally uneconomic and crazy to produce and support. One could even arue it is not nessasary to go to such extremes to produce a turntable that sound wonderful but it remains a marvel and never to be reproduced ever again. One would have to really study the Rockport to understand to actually what went into this totally outlandish yet elegant solution. I suspect many owners have began to understand what lies within the design, and its complexity as while complex is very simple to set but does still require dedication.
 
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spiritofmusic

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I was always intrigued Mike moved away from it.
 

108CY

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I was always intrigued Mike moved away from it.

I have found it an interesting beast it takes no prisoners and the arm is fussy re cartridge choice and arm cable also needs to be periodically calibrated so does take a bit of dedication to own one. There are most certainly differences between units too.
 

spiritofmusic

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Its a shame there won't be an all-out assault DD tt with all the trimmings to take on the cream of current belt drive super tables.
 

108CY

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Its a shame there won't be an all-out assault DD tt with all the trimmings to take on the cream of current belt drive super tables.

not that one can currently purchase at least.
 

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spiritofmusic

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Marc, do you not consider the Monaco 2.0 an "all out assault DD tt"?
Oh, I'm sure the motor, platter and plinth materials are. But no uber attention to isolation, biaxial air suspension type arrangement etc.
 
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PeterA

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Oh, I'm sure the motor, platter and plinth materials are. But no uber attention to isolation, biaxial air suspension type arrangement etc.

Point well made. I agree accept I don't really know if and how air suspension would benefit such a design. Interesting thought on isolation. Perhaps they think the CF is damped enough. I'd be curious to learn their views on isolation and whether or not users have experimented with different forms and what the results may be.

Anyway, I suspect this announcement will result primarily in further speaker development and perhaps some greater amount of capital to pursue new designs.
 

Mike Lavigne

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I was always intrigued Mike moved away from it.

it was a closed system, and arms were getting better. the turntable itself is likely still state of the art now 23 years after it's debut. the arm is still likely very good, but other arms are getting better and better.

my NVS, sitting on a Taiko Tana active isolation system, with my Durand Sapphire Telos.......is better to my ears. it's equal or better in drive magic, better with isolation, and the arm is lower noise and has more detail. the linear tracker does have a bit of magical effect, but then is comparatively wanting in bass articulation and slam.

i consider my NVS set-up right up there with the big boys, and the Sirius III is right there too. so at these levels we follow our ears and make our choices.

i do miss the physical majesty and presence of the Rockport Sirius III. nothing quite like it. wish i could have kept it.
 
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asiufy

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it was a closed system, and arms were getting better. the turntable itself is likely still state of the art now 23 years after it's debut. the arm is still likely very good, but other arms are getting better and better.

my NVS, sitting on a Taiko Tana active isolation system, with my Durand Sapphire Telos.......is better to my ears. it's equal or better in drive magic, better with isolation, and the arm is lower noise and has more detail. the linear tracker does have a bit of magical effect, but then is comparatively wanting in bass articulation and slam.

i consider my NVS set-up right up there with the big boys, and the Sirius III is right there too. so at these levels we follow our ears and make our choices.

i do miss the physical majesty and presence of the Rockport Sirius III. nothing quite like it. wish i could have kept it.

Maybe add a Bergmann Odin to the NVS? :) Plenty of slam and bass articulation with this one...
 

asiufy

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have you mounted an Odin to another tt and then compared it directly to another arm with the same cartridge?

Not yet. The plan was to do it with an SP-10R, and we might still do it. But Ron is in the running too, with the AS2000, so there's that too.

There's also the option of mounting another arm on the Galder, and comparing it to the Odin. We'll see what happens first :)
 

Mike Lavigne

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Not yet. The plan was to do it with an SP-10R, and we might still do it. But Ron is in the running too, with the AS2000, so there's that too.

There's also the option of mounting another arm on the Galder, and comparing it to the Odin. We'll see what happens first :)

fair enough. no doubt that what i heard from the Bergmann system at Axpona was outstanding in every respect. so i cannot assume that the arm has limits in bass authority. yet i know what i heard when i had my Rockport in the room with other tt's and arms. but i never had a pivoted arm on the Sirius III either.

isolating pieces of integrated systems is always difficult. and the Odin could end up being excellent in bass performance by itself, but fall short of the best pivoted arms in that way still. might be a very marginal difference head to head. i'd be surprised if it was not really good in the bass by itself (as the Rockport arm might have been too).
 

spiritofmusic

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Mike, 108CY, my enquiry is simply Fantasy Island stuff. There was some talk a few years back that a new Sirius was being mooted. But spkrs were taking precedence.

Maybe making a new Sirius is the same ballpark complexity as making a new Studer. Ie completely untenable.

It's fascinating that AF0 as a bleeding edge design is possible using a tricked out pre-existing motor.

But this approach not possible for a new Sirius.
 

Elliot G.

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Congrats Josh all the best to you in your new adventure I am sure you will do an amazing job.
 

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