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RonyWeissman wrote:

I heard this TT, it was magnificent, almost no coloration to speak of, dead dead quiet. Of course it wasn't plugged in and there was no tonearm or cartridge yet but man I loved the sound! Really whatnthe hell is everyone screaming about ? Romy mentioned that walker changed the air pressure and suddenly his Uber-expensive TT is 50 % better than the old  model and all that for the same price. It's just a poke at audio idiocy and really not a comment at all about the TT!

Yes, Rony, I do not remember I ever spoke about sound of Walker’s turntables. I have no reasons to do it. I heard the TT in very many occasions and I had an intimate conversation with two long-times Walker users, not the internet salivatetors like the idiot above in the thread but truly thoughtful audio users. I do not think that my experience of listening the TT qualifies me to make any judgment about the TT. You see what you hear a complete setup then no matter how experienced you are it is imposable to recognize in the whole sound what was specifically contributed by TT and what come from zillion other things. It is possible to do if you begin to play with that system, do some modification and to see how the playback reacts to it.  However, even then there is a lot of complexity evolved in order to make definitive judgment. Average audio reviewing never go to the depth of that complexity, ironically the professional audio reviewing usually even more shallow then armature one.

I did hear setups with Walker’s turntables that were more or less interesting and I heard installations that were disgusting.  What it Walker’s fault or glory? I have no idea. However, the problem that I see is that the system owner were completely unconscious about positive or negative moments of own sound. It was very disturbing.

Walker’s turntable is not other turntables. If you have EMT-927, Micro 5000, larger Clearaudio or some of the Thorens then you clearly hear the sound of TT. You can put them in some kind of capable setup and if you know what you do then you can reach the final sound beyond witch you can’t go further as it will be limited by the sound of that TT. That I would call the Turntable Sound.  Walker does not have that fixed Turntable Sound but instead it has million ways to make that TT to sound like anything and it hardly very predictable as the combination of actions and adjustments you do over Walker will give to you  different result. That is in my view an absolutely faulty approach to design TT as the TT does not demonstrate a stable sound producing platform.

If you drive a car than you would like to know all time that turning wheel to certain angle you move your specific vehicle to very specific location on road. If you have that feeling than you can build up your driving techniques upon that fixed feeling how your steering system works. However, how will you feel and how will you develop you driving skills if the wheel will have different angle-to-turn ratio and different power steering efforts depends of the tire pressure, road condition, temperature of engine, day light, proximity to Chanukah, type of the sandwich you ate this morning, presence of other cars on the road, age of oil in engine, type of gasoline in the tank, frequency of radio station you are playing in your car… That exactly what I am very much opposed and would consider that such a car has fundamentally faulty design, even if was driven by Harry Pearson or by any other pimps who are famous to drum up idiots to buy audio.

I do not claim that Walker can’t produce a very good sound. I personally do not know and I do not trust to expertise and efforts of people out there who use Walkers.  The most important is that I do not trust their honesty and integrity. Most of them are like this idiot “TheOptimist” who run and scream about the best TT on planet without even understanding the essence of the subject.

BTW, I would like to note one more thing.  Above I mentioned Micro 5000 but not the Micro 8000. Micro 8000 from the perspective of sound stability is not as fixed as 5000 and it has some parameters that might be adjusted that will make it to demonstrate slightly different sound. I do not like it as well. However, I use my TT for my own gratification; I know how to use it, I now the sound I am getting and I am well informed about the consequences of my actions with that TT. I might discuss the ways to get different sound from Walkers, Micros or any other TT but it has to be with the people who are sensible not the people similar to the idiot above who converted my very specific criticism to alleged personal attacks toward Mr. Walker or my alleged ignorance with given TT. In the end of it I know very much what is behind the motivations of “TheOptimist” and the rest of similar to him. I do not care, respect or even consider their position/view and recognize their stamens as a fart in ocean.

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