Next week I’m in Munich for the High End show and by coincidence will be sharing a booth (or to be more exact one of my clients Thorens is sharing a booth) themed Sources of the Future – as it’s vinyl and streaming – with Higoto who are Germany’s streaming experts.

The demos will be of Thoren’s new Tri-Balance turntable, the Logitech Transporter and a Macbook running iTunes with the Amarra software into a Weiss DAC.

Should be very interesting.  It’ll bring out all the digits is digits posts again, especially as Amarra is around $1500.  That means the price of Mac Book Pro , Amarra and DAC will be around £5-6k.  Cheaper than my CD player. But will it deliver as much?

Will it be fabulous hi-fi or fabulous music?

Don’t get caught out like me wondering why the beginning sounded so odd.  Luckily my Funked LP12 with its DC motor and clever power supply can be switched to 45.

The album is truly stunning.  It has been mastered with care, it’s not compressed to hell, and its quiet.  What’s really wonderful though is the music.  It’s true poetry set to to music.  Maybe it’s not the most uplifting album in the world but it’s definitely the best album I’ve bought in the last couple of years.

Worth playing very often and very loud.

The Thorens 25th anniversary triple album is in the same class, but I didn’t have to buy that one, I’m glad to say.  More on that another day.

The newer LP12 is now fully Funk Vectored complete with K Drive.

Both, after setup by my friend, bounce in a much more regular and controlled manner.

The huge difference though is in the music. They just deliver far more music and far less thickness and confusion. Stone Fox Chase the theme to The Old Grey Whistle Test had so much more interest and detail in the rhythm section on the old Linn compared to before the mods.

The Funky LP12 showed signs of the pre run-in forwardness I had expected but even so the control, dynamics and grip were so far of what the TT was delivering before.  Playing tracks from the new Thorens triple LP was a revelation.  The Staple Singers sounded amazing with fantastic out of blackness projection and Rickie Lee Jones’ nasal twang was as true as it was live at the Palladium.

More after the running in has completed.

This is still very much work in progress. Sort of learning on the job really; except I’m trying to learn how to get the best out of WordPress and all the plugins, widgets etc late in the evenings.