Although the Basis Audio brand from the United States is not too well-known in China, it is an "old qualification" in the field of Hi-End-level vinyl turntables and even analog audio. Founded in the United States in 1986, the brand has been specializing in the design, development and production of Hi-End vinyl turntables for nearly 40 years.
The demands on mechanical precision are almost fanatical
The soul of the Basis Audio brand is Armando "A.J." Conti, a mechanical engineer by training, has a special interest in weight spring damping. Because of his expertise in mechanical engineering, he was also handy in designing the drive system for vinyl turntables. In fact, there are not many product models under the Basis Audio brand, and you can count them on almost one hand. The top flagship is the Armando "A.J." Conti's name, A.J. Conti Transcendence, is also extremely luxurious in materials and design. In recent years, in addition to continuously improving the existing vinyl turntable products, the Basis Audio brand has also launched accessories such as tonearms, allowing users to have more choices.
As mentioned above, Armando "A.J." Conti's requirements for mechanical precision when designing vinyl turntables are extremely strict, even to the point of almost fanatics, and he only allows the error to be smaller and smaller, the closer to zero the better, which also creates the top mechanical technology of the Basis Audio brand vinyl turntable, and of course, it also lays an absolutely solid foundation for the final accurate, balanced, natural and neutral sound.
The entry-level vinyl turntable is also quite strong
This dedication, of course, runs through the entire Basis Audio brand of vinyl turntables, even the entry-level 2200 Signature vinyl turntable for this trial. This turntable is actually the most basic one in the Signature series, and there are two vinyl turntables in the same series, the 2500 Signature and the 2800 Signature. In terms of appearance, the three turntables are not much different, all of them are double-layer transparent acrylic shock absorbing base with four stout vibration damping feet, and the carrier disc is a translucent matte acrylic acrylic material, driven by a belt. The difference between the three is only in some detailed configurations, whether it can be paired with an external power supply and whether there is a vacuum turntable adsorption function, such as the peripheral record town, calibration base, tonearm These are universal, therefore, looking at the most basic 2200 Signature vinyl turntable, you can basically understand the design highlights of the entire Signature series and even the entire Basis Audio brand vinyl turntable.
Work hard to eliminate vibrations
Armando“A.J.” Conti once said that one of the basic goals of vinyl turntable design is to minimize any additional factors that affect the movement of the stylus other than groove changes as much as possible. This is because the cartridge itself cannot distinguish between relative motion caused by groove undulations (i.e. musical signals) and interference caused by resonances, air or structural vibration, motor noise, etc. These distractions reduce timbre, pitch, and dynamics, ultimately leaving the sound no longer pure and unable to restore the original sound. If these interferences are introduced in the stylus picking up the signal, they cannot be removed in the rest of the process. So, when it comes to eliminating external vibrations, the Basis Audio vinyl turntable is very hard, even on the 2200 Signature, it uses four "resonance eliminator" feet with fluid damping material inside, and the 2-inch thick sub-base is suspended on it. The four feet are also designed with multiple sets of springs and shock absorbers staggered in the vertical and horizontal directions, which not only isolate the sub-base from external vibrations, but also effectively eliminate the vibration of the sub-base itself.
In terms of the carrier tray, it is 2 inches thick and weighs 20 pounds (about 9kg). It can be noted that the two vinyl turntables of the same series, the 2500 Signature and 2800 Signature, have multiple circles on the outside surface of the disc, but the outside surface of the 2200 Signature vinyl turntable is very smooth. Why is there such a difference? The manufacturer did not have a specific explanation, leaving a suspense to be solved. In addition, it can be found that the record town of the 2200 Signature vinyl turntable looks very large, its actual name is Reflex Clamp (Reflex Clamp), it is made of aerospace aluminum finishing, there have been almost no design changes since production began in 1988, and it is the industry standard in effectiveness and quality.
Tolerance tolerance in microns
Of course, as mentioned above, the mechanical precision is Armando's "A.J." Conti's most "obsessive" part is his obsessive pursuit of smaller and smaller numbers in terms of bearing tolerances, disc runout amplitude and disc speed variations. According to a global authoritative audio media, when testing the 2800 Signature vinyl turntable with an instrument, the beating of the substrate was only ±5 microns. In addition, this measured data also includes the sum of all rotational errors, including rotational separation errors of the carrier disc, bearing center errors or shifting errors of rotating shaft motion. The 2200 Signature vinyl turntables from the same series are naturally not bad in this regard.
At the same time, the above tests also showed that the bearing tolerances of the turntable disc had reached the mechanical limit: the bearing diameter tolerance was only ±1.2 microns (compared to about 75 microns in the diameter of human hair). The bearings have an oil gap of 6 microns and each disc is hand-assembled onto the bearing. Each bearing and matching disc are marked one-to-one so that the dealer or user can achieve the best combination position when assembling. It's worth noting that these shrinking tolerances are one of the most important aspects of Basis Audio's vinyl turntables that have been improving over the decades. And in terms of drive belts, Armando "A.J." Conti didn't let it go. He believed that slight changes in the thickness of the drive belt would also affect the stability of the rotating speed of the disc, so he purchased his own precision grinding machine to manufacture the drive belt that met the requirements. This is the new "Revolution Belt", whose thickness varies by only ±0.6 microns, which is an astonishing achievement for flexible materials. Armando “A.J.” Conti also found that the thinner the material used to make the belt, the better the sound it makes, so you can see that the "revolutionary belt" is so thin that it is almost translucent.
Peaceful, balanced and fresh
This year, our company visited Shanghai and listened to the equipment on the spot, which is naturally indispensable to Eggleston Audio's flagship product Eggleston Works (Eggleston) Viginti 20th Anniversary Edition speakers. The amplifier equipment for the driver is a full VTL, which is the TL-7.5 Series III Reference front stage and the MB-450 III rear stage driver, and the record amprise paired with the 2200 Signature vinyl turntable is The TP-6.5 Series II Signature. The power processing part of the entire system uses the Signal Projects Poseidon S40 power processor. Does the 2200 Signature vinyl turntable, which is so particular about tolerance numbers, sound like a clear advantage? Yao Yingge's "Pastoral Song" was played at the scene, and the human voice was clear and natural, transparent and showed a high degree of analysis. As the vinyl version, the analog and air sense of the voice is fully displayed, and the female voice is more natural fax, with warmth and affection, beautiful and sweet.
Then play Edward. Fan. Benum's "Bruckner Symphony No. 9", which is performed by the Amsterdam Orchestra in the Netherlands, is more obvious than listening to it in the past, in the better contrast of strength and weakness and the sense of full-band balance, and the timbre and the air in the sound stage seem to suddenly come alive. When the wind music is high-pitched, the passion of the music is gradually released as the volume increases, but the human ear does not feel any discomfort or noise, showing that the distortion of this vinyl turntable is extremely low. At the same time, the brilliance of the wind music does not hide the foreshadowing of the low-volume accompaniment piece in the background, and the two maintain a delicate natural balance, showing the excellent analysis and control ability of this vinyl turntable.
When playing Kramer's "Mozart: Violin Concerto", the surprise is that the background noise of the entire sound stage is almost inaudible, as if it has been "filtered", the environment is dark and quiet, and the transparency is excellent. The "chain reaction" brought about by this performance is that the music is more vivid and sharp, and the sound is much more vivid. In addition, you can clearly feel that the layering is much richer, and the high frequency band is not only bright and glow, but also has a soft shimmer, which is very pleasant.
Persistence pays off, and this is fully validated on the 2200 Signature vinyl turntable.