Tri Mai of Tri-Planar has become a good friend and supporter all these years. Aside from great music, we both share a passion for mechanical watches. SORAsound is pleased to represent Triplanar tonearms, or as I fondly refer to them, these jewels.
Triplanar Precision Tone-arm MK VII is a beautiful handmade piece of art that will sure help excel your music system. Triplanar has won many awards in the thirty some years it has been in production. It has a dual pivot design. Tri Mai’s skill as a watch maker has enabled him to make Triplanar a better tonearm in the last few years he has been at the helm of the company.
Triplanar tonearms offer adjustable azimuth, adjustable vertical tracking angle, and vertical bearing at record height. Triplanar tonearms are powerful and dynamic, true to music. These jewels come in black and silver, with RCA or XLR cables, or 25 cm box output RCA.
For further details, please check out Triplanar website and call us with your questions. We also represent other tonearms including Moerch, Graham, Black Beauty, and Ortofon.
Many of our customers use Tom Evans Audio Design phono stages. All sound great. These units are priced fairly, carrying a lot of value to audiophiles. All our customers think highly of Tom’s products. So, I decided to represent Tom and offer his great products to you.
Tom is a very nice man, with two kids. He began his electronics career in defense industry. In 1989 he went back to his first professional love, building high quality and great sounding hi-fi gear. Tom always has time for his representatives and customers, explaining all the details of his products in detail. He takes great pride in his name and the products he produces. Tom’s Hi-Fi gears are so good that he called them Tom Evans Audio Design.
Tom Evans manufactures phono stages, preamps, power amps and speakers. Most information below is copied from Tom Evans Audio Design website by permission.
A click away from urther info on Tom Evans products.
Review below is by a customer of ours Mr. Paul Folbrecht.
“I’ve been using a Tom Evans Audio Design Microgroove +X for about the last three months. I consider it to be my last phono stage. (I hope I’m serious this time, and three months is a long time to go without having any desire for something better or different – at least for me.)Discovering Tom Evans gear was a bit of a revelation for me, that began last year. I had read of it but never heard it – after all, it’s not very easy to hear (the phono stages are easier to come across than the Vibe/Pulse and the Linear A). I started with a used Linear A, and was very impressed with that piece: it had an uncanny ability to unravel detail (including microdynamics) against an absolutely black background, and was spectacularly “fast” and extended as well. Of course, those things in itself are not too mean a trick – a lot of good (solid-state) gear can do that. But what the Linear A did that did set it apart was being as fast, quiet, and detailed while simultaneously having *full* tonal saturation and *never* sounding the slightest bit edgy, or bright.
I then added a Vibe/Pulse (Lithos 7 version, bought used from the same dealer) – and it made an even bigger difference to the system (over the highly-regarded tube line stage I had been using). It was the Vibe/Pulse that was really a game-changing piece of equipment for me: a blackground blacker than I had ever heard before, with quite stunning macro dynamics, and full and complete tonal saturation with a lovely, perfectly smooth and rich midrange and treble. After using it for several months, any tubed preamp was just too slow and veiled for me. Prior to that point, I had never found a solid-state preamp I preferred to even a mediocre valved unit. I’m not saying they’re not out there – I’m sure very prices MBL and other solid-state gear can pull of proper tonal saturation without being edgy – but I do believe it is generally VERY expensive to do it.
At this point I decided I wanted to go “the full monty” with a Tom Evans phono stage and that I should buy a new piece to support the company. I decided on the middle-of-the-read Microgroove + X after reading reviews. (I have seriously toyed with abandoning vinyl altogether, and done so for short periods, so I didn’t think a greater expense was warranted.)
I placed the order through local dealer SORAsound (great to deal with) and received the unit after only a few weeks.
After being plugged-in for only a few hours, the unit’s potential was evident, but it did seem to take a few days to display what it’s really capable of. Once it had settled down, I was quite thrilled, and amazed – it really exceeded my expectations.
It was the signature Tom Evans sound – fast, neutral, completely extended, but tonally pure and harmonically complete, with perfect balance – to an even higher degree. (After all, the line stage is providing something like 12 dB of gain while the phono stage is at around 70 dB! I guess it’s hard to argue that the phono stage is not the most important part of a vinyl amplification chain.)
My analog setup is a Basis Ovation table, early TriPlanar arm, and Ortofon Rondo Red cartridge. (Yes, the cart is the bottleneck there in terms of cost, but it doesn’t really sound like it!) I had on-hand with the Microgroove +X a well-regarded tubed phono stage (with SUTs for the MC gain stage) that retails for about $6000 (almost three times the TE’s price). The tubed unit was also *very* good, and they were surprisingly close not only in overall performance but in sonics, but I did end up preferring the Microgroove. It had a substantially lower noise floor and was audibly more extended, although the tubed unit was very good in both regards too. The tubed unit was more “lush” in the midrange but I came to see that as a coloration and preferred good recordings without it.
That’s about it. Like most Tom Evans gear, it doesn’t really look like it’s worth the asking price and it’s so light that thick interconnects can lift it, but, well, who cares. Tom is, I think, proud of the fact that he refused to market “audio jewelry”, and isn’t it more sensible to put the money where it counts? (I’ve come to like the understated but purposeful aesthetic of the Vibe, but the Microgroove is so tiny I hide it behind the platform the line stage is on anyway.)”
MOERCH has introduced a new top model: The DP-8 Anisotropic.
Anisotropic because the effective mass for the horizontal mode of motion is many times higher than the effective mass for the vertical mode of motion. – No matter the effective mass of the armtube used. (See FEATURES OF THE MOERCH TONEARMS.)
This provides for tremendous improvements in bass response and a lot more dynamics. Read more about it in the DP-8 product page.
The DP-8 Anisotropic got The Golden Ear Award in The Absolute Sound June/July issue 2010.
MOERCH tonearms, the models DP-8, DP-6 and UP-4 are an example of high technical standards and attractive styling.
To Hi-Fi circles all over the world, the name MOERCH was known for their turntable manufacturing in the sixties and seventies.
This experience over the years led to experimenting with all types of tonearms in order to gain greater insight into the turntable/tonearm interface.
While observing correct design fundamentals, crucial parameters such as choice of materials, a new approach to mass distribution, and elimination of arm resonances, required in depth study for the design of an exceptional arm.
This research resulted in the invention and patenting of an entirely new concept of tonearm.
The new model DP-8 Anisotropic is based on the same principles as comprised in this patent.
Miyajima Lab (Otono Edison) includes two stereo cartridges (Miyajima Shilabe and Miyjima Waza) as well as mono phono cartridges and a step up transformer. Working with my long time friend, Robin, I am happy to be representing Miyajima Lab (Otono Edison) line of phono cartridges.
You can find all Miyajima Lab product descriptions and prices by clicking on my good friend, Robin’s website on Miyajima Lab cartridges. Please come back and let us take care of you.
JRDG. Our favorite solid state amps at affordable pricing. Well, “affordable” is relative. Certainly worth every penny!
Jeff Rowland Design Group (JRDG) is by no stretch of the imagination a “boutique” company SORAsound is more accustomed to deal with. Their Continuums (yes, multiple because demand is so high) always available for auditioning.
For more information about these fine products, please click on Jeff Rowland’s Website.
