Collectively, these differences are significant. Monaco v2.0 owners have been known to improvise battery power supplies for the ‘table, an arrangement that has been played at the last few Munich Shows by Living Voice/Definitive Audio. The main bearing change and the new ‘brain’ both promise musical and sonic benefits, while the introduction of the single-bolt arm-board fixing addresses one of the Monaco’s few practical and operational weaknesses. The deck has only ever been able to accept a single tonearm, which in this day and age is a very real barrier to sale. Not only do many (most?) owners of top-flight record players want to run more than one arm/cartridge combination, the increased awareness of the superiority of many mono releases over their early stereo counterparts has resulted in a corresponding increase in the demand for mono cartridges and a second tonearm to carry them. On a purely practical note, changing the Monaco arm-board has always involved hoisting the deck using a special jig that interfaces with the Apex sockets and then undoing six allen bolts. It’s not as simple as it sounds and has always been one of my bugbears with the deck.
The adoption of the single-bolt fixing for the arm-board isn’t as good as having a second arm permanently attached – but it’s close. The long rails that guide the arm-board into place ensure geometric consistency, meaning that an arm and cartridge can be mounted and meticulously aligned, in the sure and certain knowledge that the alignment will be preserved if the arm is removed and then re-mounted at a later date. But the real key to the system – in every sense – is the one bolt fixing that (identical to the Parabolica) is reached from above, through a well in the platter. Changing the tonearm can be achieved in a couple of minutes, especially if you have the second arm ready and waiting to go. It’s a facility that we didn’t need for the v2.0/v3.0 comparison, but it opened up the opportunity for a second comparison of the 4POINT14 and Saphir tonearms. Although that’s another story, the exercise (involving multiple arm swaps) certainly underlined – or reminded me – just how effective the removable arm-board arrangement is.
The comparison of the two ‘tables was conducted in the familiar surroundings of the main Definitive Audio listening room. The system was familiar too, with a Consolidated Audio 1/32 SUT and the latest iteration of the SJS electronics driving the new Living Voice R80 loudspeakers. This was the first time I’d seen/heard the line-stage, resplendent in a curved wood chassis to match the beautifully styled SJS 300B stereo amp. Also in the rack (and possibly intended to tease or confuse) was a pair of prototype parallel single-ended SJS mono-blocs, with a 300B driver stage and twin 300B output tubes. In practice, the 8.5 Watts of the stereo amp were more than sufficient to drive the R80, a combination that sounded significantly more effortless and comfortable in the smaller DA listening room than it had in the much larger space in Munich. Kevin Scott had gone the extra mile with the turntables, dialling in both the v2.0 and the v3.0 with the same 4POINT14 arm and Kuzma CAR-60 cartridge, so that the comparison involved simply switching the arm-top from the bearing assembly/VTA tower on one deck to the identical components mounted on the other. Really nailing a cartridge set up is a time-consuming process involving considerable patience. Doing it twice is definitely above and beyond, so I was genuinely happy and grateful (!) to see somebody else taking on the task
