Acoustic Signature Ascona Neo, without tonearm and cartridge

This is a Turntable that sits pride of place in the reference system here at Carlton Audio Visual. To put this first into context, our reference system consists of the Sonus Faber Flagship Aida 2 Speakers, Audio Research 160M Monoblocks & Ref 6 Pre-amp with a matching CD9SE CD player and PH9 phono stage.

Even though we have an extensive range of turntables, we still didn't have the right one for this system. 

It wasn't until Rab went to Munich High-End Hi-Fi show and sat down and listened to the Acoustic Signature's range, that he found THE ONE. He said the Invictus (@ c. $275,000 AUD) was the best turntable he had ever heard BUT this, the Ascona, holds many of the technical details of the Invictus and would also sit perfectly on our ready to go Basso Continuo rack (Invictus was a liiiittle large). 

Most importantly, the Ascona brings to life an analogue recording like nothing we've ever had in store. The 3D image of the music is papable. When we play Adele's 21, I feel like I can take a step and touch the microphone that she's singing into. 

We made sure to have the TA-9000 Tonearm mounted to this beauty.The TA-9000 is in itself an engineering marvel and I'm not the only person to believe that it is simply the very best tonearm money can buy. They make each of these with a Selective Laser Melting Process Machine millimeter by millimeter so that the inner tube is connected to the outer tubing with a precise tree-branch structure that COMPLETELY does away with resonance effects.

We've finished off the set up with a Van den Hul Crimson Stradivarius cartridge.