We drove through dense fog and semi-freezing rain, while running over 16 frogs on the road, we arrived at 8.30 pm. Lawrence Lock was generous enough to let John test drive his La Platine Verdier & the Reed arm. The cartridge is a Benz Micro Ruby. The setup took a full 3 hours, from 8.30 pm to 11.30 pm. The most excited person was not the host, but me !

At 11.30pm, music finally played. It took us another 1/2 an hour before we finally got the gain, and loading figured out on the Pass Labs Xono phono preamp.  The majority of Verdier turntables usually have higher end cartridges fitted onto them.    In our scenario, the Verdier seems to be asking for more, and the Benz Ruby does not seem to be able to keep up.  The Benz Ruby is a little slow sounding and has a slow transient response, although it does possess a full bodied presentation.   On Ricci's violin, it was as if the entire presentation became slower sounding.

The Verdier is a very dynamic table, yet it has the open airy top end of a suspension design.  I can’t wait to see what a Goldfinger or Olympos will do to the sound or a Lyra Kleos for that matter.   The Benz Ruby is not doing the Verdier justice although at $ 2000, we thought it was pretty good for its money.