Feedback

Hi Everyone,

Thought that I might add a few additional comments about the Once Analog Turntable. I have used a Once Turntable now for a number years - I think I was probably Vince's first sale. Prior to purchasing this turntable I had tried many (too many in fact!) of the top turntables available over a number of years with varying degrees of satisfaction. I have also had the opportunity to listen at great length to many high end turntables belonging to fellow vinyl enthusiasts.

The bottom line for me is that since I have owned Vince's turntable, I have never felt the need (not even an itch) to change/upgrade. In essence, it is a beautifully made piece of hi fi equipment that plays wonderful music with a minimum of fuss. I cannot imagine anyone who has a passion for vinyl being unhappy with this product as it meets all the criteria that enthusiasts look for from this hobby.

Vince has a profound knowledge of all things vinyl and has produced a world class product. As I have said to him on many occasions, he should take a well deserved bow (even though I know this is not his style)!

Best wishes,
Lance Fellows
A.C.T. Australia.

Vince

It's been 6 months since we purchased the Once player. Let me start off by telling you that we don't miss our old turntables (Thorens). Unlike in the past we now prefer to play records over CD's, it's unfortunate we can't have ALL of our music on vinyl. What is so distracting about the Once is it's appearance, you just want to look at it every time you walk past. It's as though you can already hear the music by just admiring it's timeless beautiful looks. As they say "it's not just a pretty face". The real beauty starts when it's playing. We feel that the singers and musicians come for a visit when we listen to the Once! No joke. The speakers, amplifier etc all help but it's the Once (source) that makes it all possible. We are very happy and privileged to be owners of a Once turntable. We know that the technical specifications and superb craftmanship of the player have been meticulously taken care of by you. I suppose it wouldn't be a Once if it wasn't the very very best money can buy. It's the reason why we chose it over all the others, even if money was no object it's still the very best. We can't help but think, each time we listen to the real life music it reproduces, how much thought and attention to detail went into making the Once. Buying a Once is like buying a Patek Philippe Swiss watch, it's something you purchase and hand over to your children and grandchildren to use. Consider giving it a 100 year warranty! I think it's that good.

I would recommend it to anyone with a love for analogue music who might be thinking of a new LP12, Clearaudio, Michell, VPI etc to audition a Once before deciding on a new turntable.

Kind Regards
Mendo & Abi Ristevski
Sydney Australia
April 2009

Linn LP12 DC Conversion

Hi Vince

Details! So many details I couldn't hear before! I've only listened to two records so far:

"Malcolm Frager plays Chopin" on Telarc - the second track is one of the most convincing recordings of piano I've heard - well the improvements are subtle but all the way through: tiny crescendos and diminuendos which I never heard before; longer decays; pianissimo is much software - interestingly, people talk about deeper bass with DC motors - I didn't find that was the case - the bass was more detailed but no deeper (maybe a limitation of my speakers)

Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" played by The English Concert on Archiv - wow! SO much detail. Rock solid speeds. Pace seems much faster in some sections and much slower in others, forcing you to wait and listen for what the performers will do next. Subtleties I never imagined were in the record.

Great job, Vince.

Now I'm wondering just how much more is in these records that I have never heard.

Regards
Warren

SYDNEY AUDIO CLUB MEETING 10/8/2008

Dear Vince,

Very many thanks for your kindness in bringing along for our enjoyment your wonderful turntable for us to listen to.

I really enjoyed today. The sound was very musical and enjoyable to listen to. A wide variety of musical genres were played and all sounded convincing. It was a very musical sound with a very even balance to the sound.

There were many comments from our members and guests stating that today is one of the best sounds that we have had at any of our meetings.

So once again very many thanks for your efforts today.

David Cooper
Secretary

Extract from FEEDBACK - Bulletin of the SYDNEY AUDIO CLUB - Sept 2008 (pp 10-12)

Reprinted with permission of the Sydney Audio Club

(to view the entire bulletin in PDF format (1.3MB) - click here)

Well after reading the July August 2008 issue of Australian HiFi magazine, including the review of the Once Analogue Turntable, I pondered to myself :- HMMMMM I wonder?

I spoke to a friend, Mendo, and he said that he knew Vince, the designer, and would ask him. So he did, I followed this up with a few emails and Vince kindly agreed that he would be very pleased to pay us a visit at Epping. A date was agreed and so this has now come to pass and we were able to listen to Vince's Turntable.

So how did it sound?

That is a very easy question to answer, so this will be a very brief review. Listening to those around me at the meeting, superlatives such as :

• Fantastic
• Excellent
• Best sound we have had at Epping
• I want one
• One of the best sounds we have had at the club.

So the review is complete and I can retire to bed and get an early night ...............................
Oh sorry you want to hear my bigoted opinion.
Easy - "PRETTY DAMNED FINE"

Now, lets see, reviewers can occasionally get best mates rates for reviews. HMMMMMMM again I wonder of the possibilities. There is room at home for a T/T of this quality. I wonder if Vince would oblige my suggestion of a VERY LONGTERM REVIEW SAMPLE?

So to the carefully considered and balanced comments.

The system consisted of the Once Analogue Turntable, SME V arm, Benz Ruby MC Cartridge, M E Pre Amp, M E Power Amp, B&W 801 speakers. Interconnects were Audio Synthesis with Eichmann phono plugs, and my own braided Cat 6 speaker cables. Vince provided a selection of his music and John McEvoy provided his usual selection of music on half speed masters for our enjoyment.

The first thing that struck me about this system was its sheer Musicality, everything played sounded real and convincing, especially female vocals. The dynamics were fast and controlled and micro dynamics were easily heard. The bass was extremely well controlled with excellent extension and good weight. So when the bass was struck it sounded that way. The cymbals of the drum kit were very open and clean and the natural decay was very well presented and progressive, not abruptly cut off. This suggests that the t/t is very quiet and does not mask very low level detail. So we have excellent dynamics coupled with a very low noise floor which actually results in a very large dynamic range from this system.

Female vocals were wonderful with superb expression and the voices sounded real. One could really hear the emotion expressed in the voice of the singer.

DIRE STRAITS was TRULY WILD - power control dynamics it was all there. And it really swung too. I love that album so this was a real treat to hear it on this system. The lead guitar had real dynamics and the bass guitar had real weight and depth and the two were easily discerned. The Jennifer Warnes track was superbly rendered the timing was excellent and the expression in her voice was well presented. On some systems with poor resolution the voices can be lost, but not here as the voices were easily discerned, increasing ones enjoyment of the song.

Norah Jones can sometimes sound a little anemic and nasal but with this system there was body to her voice and the NASALITY was absent, so one was able to "Sing Along With Her" which I consider an important aspect to a good system. If you cannot sing along to the song with the singer then usually it is the timing that is out. But here the timing was spot on and the ability of the T/T to maintain a constant speed was essential in achieving this.

The Jacques Loussier track was able to again show the T/T's ability to provide correct timing and stability, as I find the rhythms used by Jacques require excellent stability from the T/T. If the timing and stability is out then Jacques sounds ODD and one is not able to follow the music, reducing ones enjoyment of the. Drums are very timing dependent and require the NATURAL DECAY to be accurately reproduced or the drums sound UNREAL. It also adversely impacts upon the dynamics of the drums and percussion.

The Cat Stevens voice is an immensely rich instrument and if the bass to mid is flawed then this can lead to a marked loss of presence to his resonant voice and it will sound weak and insipid, but here it was all there and you could relax in his luxuriant voice. Wonderful. The Oscar Peterson track was another blinder: the timing of the T/T again excelling here and everyone appeared to tap tapping their feet in unison and to the music, again this showing how well the T/T timed. The piano had wonderful dynamics and body to its reproduction, and it is a notoriously difficult instrument to record and more importantly play back via a HiFi system. But here this was very well done and sounded convincing, many is a time that a good piano can be rendered no better than a kids toy piano when using a poor T/T combination.

When it came to Rock music the T/T was able to reproduce the power and dynamics that rock music has, and I thought I saw more than one member wishing he could TWANG AWAY ON HIS FINE AIR GUITAR! I thought I saw J McEvoy doing a fine Freddie Mercury rendition, but I was afraid of looking too obviously that I intruded on this very personal moment.

I am not a fan of classical music but many in the audience were obviously enjoying this system's rendition of Carmen and the Heroic pieces played. So in conclusion I would have to say that I agree with the many members comments that this is one of the finest sounding systems that we have had the pleasure of listening to at SAC.

And a good bit of news is that Vince Hamilton enjoyed the day as much as we did and has very kindly offered to venture north again to bring his very fine T/T to another meeting. So we will accept his very generous offer and will keep you informed as to when this will be.

So I would like to thank Vince for his kindness in bringing his T/T for us to listen to and to John Fisher for the use of his amps and speakers. As an aside, just to prove that we read the feedback forms, one member commented how would the system sound if we had not used my home made speaker cable but used AUDIOPHILE cable. An interesting comment as he said that he had so thoroughly enjoyed the system. I wonder if using many hundreds of dollars worth of cable would have significantly improved the sound of the system. I personally think that this system had a wonderful synergy and may not have been improved significantly or even at all by the use of Audiophile speaker cables.

The interconnect was home made using Audiosynthesis cable with Eichman plugs. So one could postulate that using Audiophile interconnect could have made a difference too. Anyway a very successful day.

David Cooper
Secretary