Ordered on Sunday and here today, my new turntable in the shape of Cambridge Audio's relatively recent Alva ST.
Released last year and given a pretty negative review soundwise in WHF, I opted to give one a spin when an open box but unused model came up, buying directly from Cambridge. A hefty discount and another 15% off code from Ebay meant we're not far off half price for this £849 deck and that means only one thing; I'm buying it!
I'm impressed right away by how well Cambridge package their gear. The deck comes in not one, but two double walled boxes. Internal packaging is as you'd expect for a turntable, but it's all well laid out and easy to unpack.
There's some really nice touches that Cambridge have included as well. The little red ribbon that sits, looped around the belt - it being a belt drive deck - seems like an oddity, until you then realise how easy it makes attaching the belt to the pulley on the motor. The Ortofon stylus weight guage, Cambridge RCA interconnects and pre-installed AT-VM95E cartridge on the detachable headshell mean you can be up and running in less than half an hour.
The Alva ST also has Bluetooth connectivity (which you can switch off) and an onboard phono stage - based on the company's apparently excellent external Duo phono stage - which you can also either go with, or select your own external one as desired.
The deck itself is very well built, around 9kgs, with a sleek minimalism that really appeals to my tastes. There's a power switch and speed selector buttons to the left and the Cambridge logo to the right, the platter and playing arm and that's it.
So far, so good and all in line with the review. And then, there's the sound and that's where we differ.
I'm using the onboard phono stage, mostly as I'm working from home and don't have the time to mess around getting my Project phono box set up or attach my Benz Micro Gold MC cartridge. I'll do all that at the weekend. So this is my take on the Alva ST without any extra or external bits and pieces added.
Just to be clear, I'm running this straight into my AVI actives, via the phono links from the turntable to the likewise inputs on the back of the speaker. It's about as clean a connection as you can get and lets me hear the deck minus any phono stages of amps getting in the way (well, excluding those in the speakers at any rate!).
Out the box, and give it two hours or so to run in and you'll maybe wonder if the WHF reviewer had covered the same turntable.
There's none of the "ponderous" sound they referred to. There is a big sound that delivers what I want to hear from vinyl, I'm not exactly a fan of the 95E cartridge (the ML or the C I tend think are the real stars of the 95 range) but here is doing pretty damn alright.
I picked a bunch of albums - Elton John's terrific 2001 album "Songs From the West Coast" and the earlier "Caribou", a Salsa compilation, Led Zeppelin II, The Band's "Stage Fright" and currently spinning Fish's "Weltschmertz" and the slightly veiled first hour or so soon passes and the sound really opens up.
There's good deep bass, but it's not ponderous, or impacting the timing. It's the kind of weighty, full sound that I like in good vinyl playback. I miss the clarity of the Benz moving coil, but I'm not exactly rushing to switch anything out either.
Vocals are well presented, harmonies are clear and instruments well separated. All in all, you'd be pleased to spend full price on this and for the price I paid, I'm delighted.
As for the WHF review, I think they've used the ST straight out the box and run with it because their conclusions don't stack up outside their test room.
Are there any niggles? Very minor. I get the comments about the amount of play in the tonearm movement, but if you're careful - and why wouldn't you be? - then you'll be fine. As to long term issues on bearing wear, the jury's out.
The platter mat is a hefty 5mm thing that's not too dissimilar to the one Thorens used on their TD160 (which I also have). I'm tempted to get a new one, but one thing at a time.
I'm not sure that's a niggle to be fair and probably just the old audiophile in me wanting the next shiny thing (albeit, they're generally not shiny as mats go!). That said, the Roksan RMAT-7 looks interesting, not least that it comes in 4mm or 7mm thicknesses as opposed to the more common 3mm or 5mm types. There used to be one that was very well regarded around the £90 mark and I'm damned if I can remember the manufacturer!
(Actually, I think I've just remembered and it's the Funk Firm Achromat. I'm not losing it after all!)
In the meantime, I've just swapped in the mat on the Thorens onto the Cambridge. Running updates will follow no doubt!
One major improvement is I can now walk across my floor and the playing arm doesn't behave like we're having a major earthquake! Big thumbs up!
So, after all that, my conclusions are that this is an excellent buy. I'm pretty astonished at how good the onboard phono stage is. The sound quality really isn't what I'd have expected given the WHF review and all I've been doing for the last four hours is playing one record after another. Surely that's recommendation enough to at least consider the flip side of the coin after the official review?
And here it is, unboxed, set up and ready to go!
Released last year and given a pretty negative review soundwise in WHF, I opted to give one a spin when an open box but unused model came up, buying directly from Cambridge. A hefty discount and another 15% off code from Ebay meant we're not far off half price for this £849 deck and that means only one thing; I'm buying it!
I'm impressed right away by how well Cambridge package their gear. The deck comes in not one, but two double walled boxes. Internal packaging is as you'd expect for a turntable, but it's all well laid out and easy to unpack.
There's some really nice touches that Cambridge have included as well. The little red ribbon that sits, looped around the belt - it being a belt drive deck - seems like an oddity, until you then realise how easy it makes attaching the belt to the pulley on the motor. The Ortofon stylus weight guage, Cambridge RCA interconnects and pre-installed AT-VM95E cartridge on the detachable headshell mean you can be up and running in less than half an hour.
The Alva ST also has Bluetooth connectivity (which you can switch off) and an onboard phono stage - based on the company's apparently excellent external Duo phono stage - which you can also either go with, or select your own external one as desired.
The deck itself is very well built, around 9kgs, with a sleek minimalism that really appeals to my tastes. There's a power switch and speed selector buttons to the left and the Cambridge logo to the right, the platter and playing arm and that's it.
So far, so good and all in line with the review. And then, there's the sound and that's where we differ.
I'm using the onboard phono stage, mostly as I'm working from home and don't have the time to mess around getting my Project phono box set up or attach my Benz Micro Gold MC cartridge. I'll do all that at the weekend. So this is my take on the Alva ST without any extra or external bits and pieces added.
Just to be clear, I'm running this straight into my AVI actives, via the phono links from the turntable to the likewise inputs on the back of the speaker. It's about as clean a connection as you can get and lets me hear the deck minus any phono stages of amps getting in the way (well, excluding those in the speakers at any rate!).
Out the box, and give it two hours or so to run in and you'll maybe wonder if the WHF reviewer had covered the same turntable.
There's none of the "ponderous" sound they referred to. There is a big sound that delivers what I want to hear from vinyl, I'm not exactly a fan of the 95E cartridge (the ML or the C I tend think are the real stars of the 95 range) but here is doing pretty damn alright.
I picked a bunch of albums - Elton John's terrific 2001 album "Songs From the West Coast" and the earlier "Caribou", a Salsa compilation, Led Zeppelin II, The Band's "Stage Fright" and currently spinning Fish's "Weltschmertz" and the slightly veiled first hour or so soon passes and the sound really opens up.
There's good deep bass, but it's not ponderous, or impacting the timing. It's the kind of weighty, full sound that I like in good vinyl playback. I miss the clarity of the Benz moving coil, but I'm not exactly rushing to switch anything out either.
Vocals are well presented, harmonies are clear and instruments well separated. All in all, you'd be pleased to spend full price on this and for the price I paid, I'm delighted.
As for the WHF review, I think they've used the ST straight out the box and run with it because their conclusions don't stack up outside their test room.
Are there any niggles? Very minor. I get the comments about the amount of play in the tonearm movement, but if you're careful - and why wouldn't you be? - then you'll be fine. As to long term issues on bearing wear, the jury's out.
The platter mat is a hefty 5mm thing that's not too dissimilar to the one Thorens used on their TD160 (which I also have). I'm tempted to get a new one, but one thing at a time.
I'm not sure that's a niggle to be fair and probably just the old audiophile in me wanting the next shiny thing (albeit, they're generally not shiny as mats go!). That said, the Roksan RMAT-7 looks interesting, not least that it comes in 4mm or 7mm thicknesses as opposed to the more common 3mm or 5mm types. There used to be one that was very well regarded around the £90 mark and I'm damned if I can remember the manufacturer!
(Actually, I think I've just remembered and it's the Funk Firm Achromat. I'm not losing it after all!)
In the meantime, I've just swapped in the mat on the Thorens onto the Cambridge. Running updates will follow no doubt!
One major improvement is I can now walk across my floor and the playing arm doesn't behave like we're having a major earthquake! Big thumbs up!
So, after all that, my conclusions are that this is an excellent buy. I'm pretty astonished at how good the onboard phono stage is. The sound quality really isn't what I'd have expected given the WHF review and all I've been doing for the last four hours is playing one record after another. Surely that's recommendation enough to at least consider the flip side of the coin after the official review?
And here it is, unboxed, set up and ready to go!
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