Immediately I liked what I was hearing at 108V, with the differences between 120V and 108V to drive the motor being immediately audible and significant, and there was a nice improvement in overall sonics & musicality.
Comparing the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply at 108V driving the Garrard's motor to the mains AC at 120V driving the motor was pretty much one of those no-contest situations, and very much in favor of the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply.
At 108V the transformation was such that I heard quite a lot more transparency in the overall presentation of the music, with a substantial increase in musical nuance, while still maintaining a nicely relaxed and natural sounding musicality. Also, the sense of acoustic space around the image of each voice and musical instrument seemed to expand along with the overall sense of acoustic space in the recording, as well as there being a noticeable increase in image presence.
Timbre, tone color, tempo, melody lines, rhythm, and dynamics—all elements of musicality—improved by being more naturally live-like in the way they were portrayed in the music.
Next, I set the torque adjustment to 105V, and adjusted the speed back to 45 RPM, and gave "The Girl From Ipanema" another listen. With a 105V driving the Garrard's motor I thought the performance was not quite as good compared to the 108V setting, but still it sounded very good, and much better than when set to 120V, for example. I also experimented with setting the voltage to 112V to drive the Garrard's motor, but I found the result not to be as nearly as good as at 108V, or even 105V.
It was a bit tedious doing comparative listening sessions at different voltages, but it was well worth the effort to validate the 108V sweet spot that delivered the least amount of motor vibration, and the improvement in performance was easily audible.
So, it turns out that reducing motor vibration in a turntable is a big deal, which the Hanze HiFi turntable power supply made abundantly clear to me during my exploration of different voltages to supply the Garrard 401 motor in my turntable (above).
After settling in on 108V as the optimum voltage to drive the motor of my Garrard, I listened to a number of albums over an extended period, enjoying the "art of listening" just like Hanze HiFi customers get to do when auditioning a component in Zwolle.
What did I learn from the additional "art of listening" sessions with the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply?
Well, the primary lesson I learned was that the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply is the real deal, and reducing the voltage used to drive my Garrard's motor to 108V made a big difference to its musical and sonic performance.
My experience listening to the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply pretty much mirrored what Jaap told me he had heard in his own listening trials, "The first results were really shocking, and we certainly did not expect this. A better power supply translated into blacker backgrounds, better low-level resolution, the grainy sound in voices was gone, and the soundstage was more stable and with better definition."
Artisan Fidelity Thorens TD-124 Statement Turntable
Next up for listening comparisons was my Thorens TD-124 turntable in my audio-visual system, with the Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers, the Leben CS-600 integrated vacuum tube amplifier, the Leben RS-30EQ vacuum tube phono stage, etc., which is a system that has provided me immense satisfaction with both music and film.
I'll tell you what, after doing comparative listening with the Garrard, and having to check the speed with the KAB Speed Probe each time I changed the voltage, using the Thorens TD-124 with its easy to use built-in speed probe felt like a truly civilized and liberating experience.
The Garrard is a superb performer, but it can't match the ease of use the Thorens provides with its built-in speed probe, not to mention the clutch that allows the outer platter to be easily lifted to change LPs without shutting down the motor, which is a really nice touch as well.
My appreciation for my Thorens TD-124 has really grown during this review. The Thorens is truly a civilized and user friendly high-performance vintage turntable that's a pleasure to spin LPs on, is beautiful to look at, and it can sound extremely good, just as my Garrard does.
If you own a Thorens TD-124 I hope you feel really lucky to have one, because you are!
I did basically the same thing with the Thorens TD-124 that I did with my Garrard 301, which was to first give the Thorens a listen on the mains AC (approximately 120V), and then listen to it with the Hanze HiFi turntable power supply set to 120V, to get an idea of how much the low-noise output of the power supply contributed to the performance improvement versus reducing the voltage to drive the Thorens motor.
I don't know if it was due to my AV system not having as much of the Acoustic Revive noise reducing accessories installed in it, or just that my Thorens TD-124's motor was more responsive to the low-noise 120V supply from the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply, but the magnitude of improvement from adding the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply was greater for my Thorens TD-124 turntable than it was for my Garrard, but still it was more to the subtle side of performance improvement than to the dramatic side.
I've done a bit of experimenting with the voltage levels for my Thorens TD-124, with settings of 100V, 105V, 100V, 115V, 120V, etc., and of those 110V was the better, but after a little more fine tuning, I eventually settled on approximately 108V as the preferred voltage, same as for my Garrard.
I'll save you the blow by blow comparison for the different voltages, but just let me say that when you find the best voltage for your turntable's motor, you'll know it's the right voltage by the improvement in sound quality you'll hear.
Let's talk about music. Some weeks back my buddy Chad bought tickets for a couple of his good friends to attend the Lucinda Williams concert in Seattle that was part of her 20th Anniversary "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road" tour.
So, Chad, Mark, and myself went to see Lucinda's concert (thanks Chad!), an open-air concert held at the Woodland Park Zoo as part of the "Zoo Tunes" concert series. We were outside in a cozy & comfortable setting, and the sound reinforcement people really had the concert sound dialed in perfectly.
For the concert Lucinda played through every song on the Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album in order, to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Lucinda was in great form, as was her band, and they really performed to an appreciative crowd.
Lucinda gave a brief bio of her life to start the concert, talking about traveling around the world with her Dad, poet Miller Williams, and how learning about poetry from her Dad informed her song writing sensibility.
Before each song, Lucinda explained how the song was written about an experience in her life, and if you're familiar with Lucinda's music at all you know her songs are about some pretty dark and dicey life moments, yet each one is about a true-life event that she talked candidly about. I was so impressed to find out that Lucinda is exactly who she appears to be in her song's lyrics.
It was a great concert, and it was really interesting to hear Lucinda talk about her life and the events that inspired her songs.
Lucinda wrapped up with concert with a rousing rendition of Neil Young's "Rocking in the Free World" that brought the crowd to their feet.
Lucinda made an impassioned plea for people to get out and vote the current administration out of office so that we can continue "to rock in the free world" and not be subject to the oppressive Orwellian political regime that's now in place in the USA. That brought the crowd to a standing ovation!
When I got home from the concert I looked through my Lucinda albums and I didn't have a copy of Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, so I bought one, and when I got it I listened to it all the way through, just like we heard at the concert, well except for Neil Young's "Rocking in the Free World" that is.
Lucinda's music had the power to move the crowd to a strong emotional response, and I felt that same rush of emotions listening to the album over the Thorens TD-124 with the HAT turntable power supply.
The Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply was a really nice performance upgrade to my Thorens TD-124, providing more transparency, resolution, a more liquid and natural presentation, more of everything really, both musically and sonically.
Perhaps most importantly, the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply helped me connect to the music more intensely emotionally, which is probably the greatest compliment I can offer for any audio component.
Normally I'm a jazz guy, with a little rock & roll thrown in for good measure, but lately I've really been enjoying listening to a trio of recent Willie Nelson albums, Ride Me Back Home, Last Man Standing, and God's Problem Child, and that's because of the emotional impact these albums possess.
In these albums Willie explores themes of love, lost love, making mistakes, second guessing himself, forgiveness, growing old, and losing friends to the great beyond, something I can relate to more and more as I age myself.
While I was listening, I experienced all the emotions that go with love, lost love, making mistakes, second guessing myself, forgiveness, lost youth and growing old, and losing friends and family to the great beyond, and my Thorens TD-124 with the Hanze HiFi HAT power supply really tugged on my heart strings big time as I looked back into my own life and felt all those unexpected emotional waves crash over me. It was devastating and beautiful.
Summary & Conclusions
Not having tried an outboard turntable power supply before, it took me a while to figure out how to best realize the full performance potential that the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply offers.
Here's the procedure that I found to work well for getting the best from the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply, and I think it'll work well for you too:
- First connect the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply to the mains AC supply, and then the turntable, and power it up.
- Next, adjust the torque of the power supply to provide 10% less voltage to the turntable than the mains AC supply, which for where I live meant a reduction of 12 volts, providing the turntable motor with 108 volts from the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply.
- Adjust the eddy current brake to achieve the correct speed using a speed probe.
- Give it a listen.
- Try a second voltage greater or less than 10%, and repeat steps 2-4.
- Give it a listen.
- Repeat steps 2-4, trying additional voltage settings until you are satisfied that you have found the voltage setting that provides the largest audible performance gain.
- Sit back and enjoy your music!
Following this procedure provided results for me that were illuminating, if not a bit sobering, when I heard how much more performance was lurking in my phonograph cartridges when freed from AC noise and motor vibrations that degraded their performance.
By reducing the voltage going to the turntable motor via the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply, and thus the reducing the non-musical motor vibrations that degrade my phonograph cartridges performance, my phonograph cartridges performed at a level well above what I was used to hearing from them.
I think you'll be surprised—just as I was—how much phono cartridge performance is lost due to the addition of mains AC noise and motor vibration, and how much is gained back by the addition of an outboard turntable power supply.
If you are thinking about buying an expensive phonograph cartridge, you very well may want to consider a Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply instead.
From what I was hearing from the HAT turntable power supply, the improvement in performance was well beyond the improvement in performance you would get from going from a $1000 USD to a $10,000 USD phonograph cartridge, for example. I think you would be surprised to find out what kind of performance your current cartridge is really capable of. I was.
So, buying a Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply might be the most cost-effective upgrade you can make for your turntable and cartridge, and yes, I highly recommend it!
You might also want keep in mind that the technical team at Hanze HiFi can build you a HAT turntable power supply for whatever turntable you might own, not just for the Garrard 301 and Thorens TD-124 turntables that I own, just contact Hanze HiFi for details.
I'd like to thank Johan, Jaap, and Alexander at Hanze HiFi for the opportunity to share Hanze HiFi with you, and to experience the Hanze HiFi HAT turntable power supply, and to write about it for all my friends here at Positive Feedback.
As always, thanks for stopping by Positive Feedback to read this article, and may the tone be with you!
Hanze HiFi website: https://www.hanzehifi.nl/
HAT Turntable Power Supply weblink: https://shop.hanzehifi.nl/product/h-a-t-cps-thorens-TD-124/
Hanze HiFi email link: [email protected]
