Schiit Sol Turntable Sneak-Peak

absolutely - but looking at the pictures back on page 12 it looks like the arm base and lift lower device mounting are part of the main casting.

 

Schiit SOL is introduced on this Axpona 2019 and it is now scheduled to be on the market this Summer. Target price $699.
Those who do not have time to watch entire video, skip to 11:30 to 12:40 to watch just SOL.

 

Maybe it's a case of If that is where you want to go, don't start here. By which I mean, buy the Sol for what it is, rather than as an upgrade platform.

Could probably do a lot worse.

 

Agree, the arm looks kike a really interesting design. The Sol appears to be playing in the same space as Pro-next and the cheaper Regas, I don’t imagine anyone in the market fo those decks would be replacing the arm on those.

 

I don't think this turntable is going to compete with Rega turntables. To me (the cheaper) regas are more for casual users, they are beautiful, come in different colors and will blend in in your living room. I don't think same could be said about Sol. Sol will be much harder to setup (especially compared to practically plug&play Rega), it looks somewhat industrial and "raw", doesn't come with a dust cover. I think the audience for these is different than for Regas.

I have Gyro SE and I really like that I can swap the tonearm for a better one or just to experiment. IMHO this turntable is going after people who would buy something like Gyro but the price would be just too high. Also the fact that you will be able to buy another tonearm (and that they are talking about it) is a sign that this is not a turntable for your typical Rega user.

I don't want to come out as someone who is hating on Rega, I think they are excellent products. But I do believe the cheaper ones - like Rega 1, Rega 2 are more of a lifestyle products.

 

Isn't anyone besides me wondering about the motor? Is it DC or AC? Will it be shielded to prevent interference with some cartridges like the AVA Longhorn/Grado Gold 2?
My current table is a 1st gen VPI Nomad with a 2M Bronze. I got it "open box" from MD years ago, but I have never bought all the actually necessary accessories for maintaining vinyl & my B&W P7 cans got broken by my dog the day after I bought them, & so I just gave up. I've got a stack of mostly 180 gram vinyl & my table just collecting dust. Also one of the cats got onto the table & broke the cantilever off the cartridge Ive just discovered as Im feeling an interest in putting a system together just to play vinyl. The SÓL has got to be it, my deck. But I'm wanting to try those Grado modded cartridges which say don't work well with outboard/unshielded AC motors. So, what type of motor?

 

Interesting design, I may get one! Some more SOL videos I found:

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/schiitsol/

 

That “stress test” is pretty cool. It kinda had ME a bit stressed though - I half expected it to lose control and fly off, destroying half the factory. That platter is wicked stable and smooth.

 

Looks like they took down the stress test.

 

To be fair there are bound to be... people who were going to replicate that same experiment under less controlled conditions and claim that Schiit's posting something like this justifies their actions ("it's supposed to be able to do that!") when Schiit inevitably hits the fan, perhaps literally.

Think along the lines of iPhone"bendgate" and people going to stores just to fold phones in half. I'm no Apple fan but those are morons that should have been made to pay for the damage they caused.

 

Yeah, I think Tony took it down after I saw the "stress test" here at the shop. It's pretty impressive, but I don't want anyone getting the idea they can, say, run records at 1980rpm and digitize them, then use software to bring the speed down 60x. Because SOMEONE will try it.

But, in other good news, the new CAST platters work fine...which means we don't have to get platters machined offshore for the first run. Things are finally falling into place for Sol.

 

Nice needle drop pun

 

Was the platter in the video a machined version that won't make its way into production?

 

I was wondering myself whether it was a machined or cast platter. Many years ago I owned an AR-ES1 turntable that had a platter with balancing weights (like on a car wheel) attached on the underside. A casting would have to be very high quality to spin so balanced and smooth in the stress test.

 

Another thing he did was pluck the platter while it was spinning and make it ring like a bell. Not an appealing demonstration to anyone who understands basics about TTs.

 

I'm a TT noob. Care to explain why the plucking turned you off?

 

Not the plucking per se. The ringing that followed. It's not good for a platter to ring like that.

JC

 

It's not a good idea for anything in a hifi set up to ring. Damnit, anything in the room!

Get those bells out of there!

 

Because of density? A dense platter wouldn't ring? Ideally? I would imagine material plays a roll in that? Wood or plastic of the exact same form/weight/density wouldn't ring because of the different material properties.

Or is it something else?