Looks a great room 
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Been here 6 months now and it will be the last place we live I think, love the 70’s bungo thing.
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I knew you’d be mentally decorating that lol
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I’m a sucker for the wood ceiling and stone feature wall 
More pics please @omsoc in the estate agents or design thread.
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Ha ha yes my mind had started seeing how it would look with some avocado green shag pile…
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Just posted a bake-off if you want a nose around.
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I’ll bring my fabric and wall paper swatches 
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It appears the only non Rega (
) thing in my system at the moment is this cartridge, it’s a bit of an experiment, but I like it a lot.
It’s a Rega Carbon (AT-91 type thing) with a RigB alloy body and a RigB XTC extended contact nude mounted stylus on a carbon cantilever.
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Love the look of your room, all the right ingredients, sloping timber ceiling, stone fireplace, open plan……just needs a waterfall in the back yard 
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Yes! So after a request from @keith1962 to explain some borrowed bits in my system yesterday, here goes…
The borrowing bit is tough to explain. Basically, I’m very lucky!
So above is an Audio Grail hammertone 301, grease bearing, in a solid walnut plinth. With ViVlabs rigid float 7" arm and a 2 box phono stage to it’s left.
The MM cartridge isn’t expensive - I think a couple of hundred quid - but is boosted by phantom power from the phono, rather like a microphone. I have the basic cart, there is another, posher wooden bodied one with a different diamond profile. I may get to try this in the future.
The phono doesn’t use the RIAA curve! It also has a bit of defunct technology in it that widens/deepens the stereo image. @Ruprecht brought a box with this bit of gear in it to Lopwell, so some people there heard it.
The plinth is very simple but beautifully thought out. A constrained layer damped top plate, I think 2x wood with cork between. This sits on silicon pads on a lip just inside the bottom box. The base of the bottom box is mdf and the whole lot sits on adjustable silicon damped feet. You can nudge the bottom box and it sways satisfyingly and the top plate moves independently of it.
The ViVlabs arm boggles my mind! It just looks all rong™. 7" long and the angle when you start an LP looks ridiculous! Shouldn’t work but does. It seems to track as well, if not better as any I have had and I mean right across the record. I have the basic arm, there is an upgrade with a carbon arm tube and also an articulated head shell.
I can’t tell you here how each bit sounds obvs, only how it all sounds together. The thing I noticed straight away was the speed it has, it does detail like nothing else. Really sharp. Then there is the sound stage. I’ve not had anything that produces a 3D image so consistently as this lot does. Sometimes sounds seem to be coming out of the walls. I know it’s a cliché but there is stuff I’ve never heard on records I’ve listened to over and over. For instance, Hotter Than July might as well be a remix!
I’ve bought more vinyl in the last month than I have in the last 5 years, which must be saying something. It’s reignited the hobby for me and recently I’ve been playing vinyl all day whilst working. I manage to fit a bit of tailoring in and around the changing sides. 
Anyway, this lot is only available as a package as far as I’m aware. There are others here who have heard it. @Ruprecht @murrayjohnson @dwhistance so hopefully they can fill in some of the tech stuff which I don’t really have a head for!
If anyone wants to come and have a listen, give me a shout. I’m away at the end of this month but free in August.
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Thanks Ritchie, I was intrigued from first seeing it as a package and that you had it.
The arm looks mental! More ways to skin a cat and all that!
The articulating headshell must be Nasotec?
Pretty much everything in the ‘Anu’ front end is upside down from ‘current accepted hi-end thinking’. Contrary doesn’t come close. Genuine warning - Don’t go and listen if you are not prepared to be challenged.
Before hearing this stuff I had preformed expectations (Bias) and left a few hours later scratching my head. I say this not as I have a vested interest (I just supply the motor units) but because I thought I knew what I liked. I thought I’d heard enough to hold an opinion on my personal preferences and taste. Listening to the ‘Anu’ front end a lot of my ideas have been critically revised. This sounds like a sales pitch - In honesty I can say at times the process has been painful, humbling and pride puncturing.
Examples:
I know what a 301 can do - Embarrassed, NO
12" tonearms are best - I no longer believe this to be the case
MC carts are best - I no longer believe this to be the case
I thought I knew what Stereo potential was - Not even close
I thought I knew what soundstage was - Not like this
I thought speed and dynamics could be fatiguing - I’ve not felt this
Bias off set etc are important - I now have doubts
Technically a lot of this stuff is above my understanding -The cart acts a bit like a strain gauge (But isn’t)
The miniature impedance-converter which buffers the moving-magnet motor is supplied power via the signal wires, in much the same way a capacitor microphone is supplied with phantom power
The ‘Magic boxes’ don’t include RIAA equalization: instead, it converts the phono cartridge to being displacement sensitive, so that it recovers the constant-amplitude information directly from the playing groove.
Stereo placement of instruments in a traditional sense is flawed, one of the magic boxes attempts to address this…Some of the thinking comes from an old EMI desk… Outside of this there are large blank spots in what the boxes and cart are doing. I can say sometimes there are elements in the sound that are not perfect. That said, often this is down to the recording (Particularly anything digitally mastered) Direct and revealing would be one description of the sound on a good recording. I can’t really attempt to describe further, my mental conclusion is: 'there’s a lot ‘More’ happening with this front end - More of everything.
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well, somebody has to.
Has to what?
Be a bit sceptical
Absolutely, I returned to listen 7 or 8 times during the course of an 18 month development hoping to disprove my initial experience. Why? My ego I guess and the money I’ve poured into my own system. Please take Ritchie up on his offer and post back here if your experience differs.
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Where can I read more about ‘Anu’ ?
Where was that, on instagram?
As far as I know there is nothing out there?