Seen & Heard at AXPONA: Luxman PD-191A Turntable, Acoustic Sounds Atlantic 75 Vinyl Listening Session

Seen & Heard at AXPONA: Luxman PD-191A Turntable, Acoustic Sounds Atlantic 75 Vinyl Listening Session

Mike Mettler  |  Apr 16, 2024 (analogplanet 닷 컴)

 

 

Now that we’ve all pretty much returned to our respective home listening labs after having an exhilarating four-day AXPON Aexperience at the Schaumburg Convention Center just outside of Chicago last week, we’re ready to do some deeper-dive show coverage here on AP, so buckle up! In the coming days, you will see a turntables-centric video from Ken Micallef as well as a pair of show reports from Julie Mullins that will focus on a number of booth visits and listening-room experiences accordingly, plus some long-throw listening-room impressions/evaluations from yours truly.

지난주 시카고 외곽의 숌버그 컨벤션 센터에서 4일간의 짜릿한 AXPONA 경험을 마치고 모두 각자의 홈 리스닝 랩으로 돌아갔으니, 이제 AP에서 심층적인 쇼 취재를 할 준비가 되었으니 벨트 매세요! 앞으로 며칠 동안 Ken Micallef의 턴테이블 중심 영상과 함께 여러 부스 방문과 그에 따른 리스닝 룸 경험에 초점을 맞춘 Julie Mullins의 쇼 리포트, 그리고 필자의 장시간 리스닝 룸 감상/평가를 볼 수 있을 것입니다.

 

 

First up, I’m going to expound much further upon the hour-plus experience I had will all the new Luxman gear that was set up in the Prosperity room on Level 2 that essentially led off my AXPONA photo essay. Not long after I arrived at Prosperity a few ticks past 10 a.m., Luxman’s North American sales maestro John Pravel walked me through the company’s full-system setup that was anchored by the PD-191A turntable ($12,495) as fitted with the LMC-5 MC cartridge ($2,695) and buoyed by the E-07 phono preamp ($TBD).

먼저, 2층의 프로페셔널 룸에 설치된 새로운 Luxman 장비에 대해 한 시간 넘게 경험한 내용을 자세히 설명해 드리면서 제 AXPONA 포토 에세이를 마무리하겠습니다. 오전 10시를 조금 넘겨 프로스퍼티에 도착한 지 얼마 지나지 않아 럭스맨의 북미 영업 거장 John Pravel이 LMC-5 MC 카트리지($2,695)가 장착된 PD-191A 턴테이블($12,495)과 E-07 포노 프리앰프($TBD)로 고정된 전체 시스템 설정을 안내해 주었습니다.

 

 

The E-07 preamp features four MC transformers that are compatible with the varying impedance requirements of the listener’s preferred MC cart. There is also a triple transformer power supply system for the left and right channels and peripheral circuitry, all completely independent. As for its availability, I’m told the E-07’s availability is slated for the fall. (Incidentally, I was also told this E-07 prototype was personally hand-delivered by a company rep who brought it with them on the plane from Japan.)

E-07 프리앰프에는 청취자가 선호하는 MC 카트의 다양한 임피던스 요구사항과 호환되는 4개의 MC 트랜스포머가 탑재되어 있습니다. 또한 왼쪽 및 오른쪽 채널과 주변 회로를 위한 트리플 트랜스 전원 공급 시스템이 있으며, 모두 완전히 독립적입니다. E-07의 출시 시기는 올가을로 예정되어 있다고 들었습니다. (참고로 이 E-07 프로토타입은 회사 담당자가 일본에서 비행기로 직접 가져왔다고 들었습니다).

 

 

Pravel then walked me through the PD-191A table’s specs, in addition to showing me some of its innards when we stepped outside the room, such as what’s seen above. The PD-191A is based on a belt-drive system using a brushless DC motor to maintain accurate rotation through a high-precision PID control. There is also an optional arm base for a second, 12in tonearm, as well as an optional hinged dust cover — of which, Pravel pointed out, the company outright rejected a good number of them early on, and at no small expense, as neither being symmetrically seamless in its design nor sturdy enough. (It’s all good and visibly clean ’n’ strong now, from what I saw of it firsthand.)

Pravel은 PD-191A의 사양을 설명해 주었고, 방 밖으로 나와서 위에서 본 것과 같이 내부를 보여 주었습니다. PD-191A는 고정밀 PID 제어를 통해 정확한 회전을 유지하기 위해 브러시리스 DC 모터를 사용하는 벨트 구동 시스템을 기반으로 합니다. 또한 두 번째 12인치 톤암을 위한 암 베이스와 힌지형 먼지 커버(옵션)도 있는데, 이 중 상당수는 디자인이 대칭적으로 매끄럽지 않고 충분히 견고하지 않아서 초기에 완전히 거부했다고 Pravel은 지적했습니다.(제가 직접 본 바로는 지금은 모두 훌륭하고 눈에 띄게 깔끔하고 튼튼합니다.)

 

 

Speaking of tonearms, the PD-191A is fitted with the LTA-710 knife-edge bearing tonearm system, which has an effective length of 10in. (Luxman press materials further confirmed that the arm was jointly developed with SAEC.)

톤암에 대해 말하자면, PD-191A에는 유효 길이가 10인치인 LTA-710 나이프 엣지 베어링 톤암 시스템이 장착되어 있습니다(Luxman 보도 자료에 따르면 이 암은 SAEC와 공동 개발한 것으로 확인되었습니다).

 

The LMC-5 cart sports a SHIBATA stylus, with directly wound cross-mounded coils with L/R symmetrically wound power-generation coils. Its low-distortion structure uses a single-point piano wire structure, and it boasts an Alumite body design.

LMC-5 카트에는 직접 감긴 크로스마운딩 코일과 L/R 대칭으로 감긴 발전 코일이 장착된 SHIBATA 스타일러스가 장착되어 있습니다. 저왜곡 구조는 싱글 포인트 피아노 와이어 구조를 사용하며, 알루미나이트 바디 디자인을 자랑합니다.

 

The rest of the components in the Luxman-in-Prosperity demo system included the C-10X control preamp ($19,995), M-10X power amp ($19,995), D-10X SACD player ($16,995), NT-07 streaming network transport ($7,485), Magico S3 floorstanding speakers ($45,500/pr), Magico S-SUB subwoofer ($18,650 ea), and AudioQuest Dragon Series cables.

럭스맨 인 프로퍼티 데모 시스템의 나머지 구성품은 C-10X 컨트롤 프리앰프($19,995), M-10X 파워 앰프($19,995), D-10X SACD 플레이어($16,995), NT-07 스트리밍 네트워크 전송($7,485), Magico S3 플로어 스탠딩 스피커($45,500/pr), Magico S-SUB 서브우퍼(각 18,650달러), AudioQuest Dragon 시리즈 케이블 등이었습니다.

 

 

Normally, at this point during any room appointment, I would ask to cue up a number of choice LP cuts for a listening demo — and, in fact, I had been eyeing the copy of The Doors’ L.A. Woman that was in one of the two record crates on the floor nearby on the left side of the room — but since Acoustic Sounds head honcho Chad Kassem was already on hand to host a 40-minute listening session celebrating the Atlantic 75 Series at 11 a.m., I took a seat in Row 2 for his walkthrough of about a baker’s-dozen hand-selected tracks, as DJ’ed by the unflappable Pravel. (Listen — it’s not an easy task to swap out that many LPs at a moment’s notice to immediately cue up specified tracks in such a condensed period of time, as I can personally attest. Bravo, fellow Buffalonian Pravel!)

보통은 룸 예약을 할 때 이쯤 되면 데모 청음을 위해 몇 곡의 LP를 선택해달라고 요청하는데, 사실 저는 룸 왼쪽 바닥에 있는 두 개의 레코드 상자 중 하나에 있는 The Doors의 'L.A. Woman'을 눈여겨보고 있었습니다. 하지만 오전 11시에 열리는 Atlantic 75 시리즈 기념 40분 청음 세션에 Acoustic Sounds의 수장인 Chad Kassem이 이미 와 있었기 때문에, 저는 그 자리에 앉을 수 없었습니다, 저는 2열에 자리를 잡고 그가 직접 엄선한 수십 곡의 트랙을 디제잉하는 모습을 지켜보았습니다. (제가 직접 경험한 바로는 그렇게 짧은 시간에 그 많은 LP를 순식간에 교체하며 특정 트랙을 즉시 큐업하는 것은 쉬운 일이 아니었습니다. 브라보, 동료 버팔로니안 파블로!)

 

 

As a number of you probably know by now, 75 titles were chosen from the storied Atlantic Records catalog to be part of this joint Analogue Productions/Atlantic Records 75th anniversary series celebration, with each title having been cut at 45rpm, pressed at QRP, presented as AAA 180g 2LP sets, and remastered by the likes of Ryan K. Smith, Bernie Grundman, Chris Bellman, and Kevin Gray.

이미 많은 분들이 알고 계시겠지만, 유서 깊은 Atlantic Records 카탈로그에서 75개의 타이틀이 선정되어 이 공동 아날로그 프로덕션/아틀란틱 레코드 75주년 기념 시리즈에 포함되었으며, 각 타이틀은 45rpm으로 레코딩되고 QRP로 레코딩되어 AAA 180g 2LP 세트로 제공되고 Ryan K. Smith, 버니 그룬드먼, 크리스 벨맨, 케빈 그레이 등의 리마스터링 작업을 거쳤습니다.

 

At an industry mixer held in the vast Schaumburg East ballroom the night before this Atlantic 75 event took place, Kassem personally told me he was legitimately surprised at how in-demand the two Genesis titles in this series were, in addition to those by ’90s artists like Stone Temple Pilots (sentiments he reiterated in his remarks before/during the next day’s listening session).

이 Atlantic 75 행사가 열리기 전날 밤 넓은 숌버그 이스트 볼룸에서 열린 업계 믹서에서 카셈은 개인적으로 이 시리즈의 두 제네시스 타이틀과 스톤 템플 파일럿(Stone Temple Pilots)과 같은 90년대 아티스트의 작품이 얼마나 큰 인기를 끌었는지 놀랐다고 말했습니다(다음 날 청취 세션 전/중 발언에서 다시 한 번 강조했습니다).

 

 

Of all the tracks spun that morning (for a session that lasted closer to 45 minutes than 40), I was most impressed by the breadth of arrangement in Charles Mingus’ “Moanin’” (Blues & Roots), the sinister build-up to and full-on payoff percussive moment in Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” (Face Value), the character of how each CSN vocalist aligned themselves in the harmony-climbing structure of “Helplessly Hoping” (Crosby, Stills and Nash, a.k.a. “The Couch Album,” as per Kassem), and the blend of vocal identity and acoustic guitar in John Prine’s “Illegal Smile” (John Prine). At the end of the session, Kassem added one bonus track not on the play sheet — Yes’ “Owner of a Lonely Heart” (90125). The dynamic range of this track — in essence, the mindmeld of the two Trevors, producer Horn and guitarist/composer Rabin — most especially came through in the drum track, Chris Squire’s ’80s-embracing bass line, and the squeal of Rabin’s guitar solo.

그날 아침에 돌린 모든 트랙 중에서 (40분이 아니라 45분에 가까운 세션 동안) 저는 Charles Mingus의 "Moanin'"(Blues & Roots)의 폭넓은 편곡, Phil Collins의 "In the Air Tonight"(Face Value)의 불길한 빌드 업과 본격적인 페이오프 타악기 순간, "Helplessly Hoping"(Crosby, Stills and Nash, a. 일명 '소파 앨범'), 존 프린의 '불법 미소'(존 프린)에서 보컬의 정체성과 어쿠스틱 기타의 조화가 돋보입니다. 세션 마지막에 카셈은 플레이 시트에 없는 보너스 트랙 예스의 "외로운 마음의 소유자"(90125)를 추가했습니다. 이 트랙의 다이내믹 레인지는 본질적으로 두 트레버, 프로듀서 Horn과 기타리스트 겸 작곡가 Rabin의 마음이 합쳐진 것으로, 특히 드럼 트랙과 크리스 스콰이어의 80년대 감성을 담은 베이스 라인, Rabin의 기타 솔로에서 가장 잘 드러납니다.

 

 

“The greatest part of my job is to work on my favorite albums and have them come out better-sounding than the originals,” observed Kassem during one break between songs, and who could argue with such a sentiment? While the Atlantic 75 LPs themselves were indeed mostly impeccable source material on their own respective merits, the Luxman table, arm, cart, preamp, and full system combo in the Prosperity room locale collectively brought out and delivered the scope of this vast array of music the way it was, and is, meant to be heard.

"내 일의 가장 큰 부분은 내가 좋아하는 앨범을 작업하여 원음보다 더 좋은 사운드로 만들어내는 것입니다."라고 카셈은 곡 작업 중간 휴식 시간에 말했는데, 누가 그런 생각에 이의를 제기할 수 있을까요? Atlantic 75 LP 자체는 그 자체로도 흠잡을 데 없는 완벽한 소스 자료였지만, 프로페셔널 룸의 Luxman 테이블, 암, 카트, 프리앰프, 풀 시스템 콤보는 이 방대한 음악의 범위를 원래의 의도대로, 그리고 들리는 대로 끌어내고 전달해 주었습니다.