Thank you for hosting us in your lovely home last weekend. My thoughts:

The original conception of the platter, base and bearing have been re-validated. This part of the design ranks with the best available. The long term viability of the design is a wonderful testament to your initial engineering conception.

The rim drive is a revolutionary (as opposed to evolutionary) development. I have heard just about every contender for “best turntable in the world”.

What I heard on Saturday night is the best vinyl I have ever heard…and second place isn’t that close.

Based on what I heard Saturday evening, the new drive system fulfills the promise of Galibier and what compelled me (and many other customers) to purchase Galibier turntables. I feel you absolutely owe it to your loyal customers to complete the rim drive and make it available as an upgrade sooner rather than later.

As a loyal customer and public advocate of your products, I have waited for this level of upgrade and am looking forward to getting delivery of either a prototype or finished drive system soon. I expect you will want input and validation from current owners, please let me know when a test unit will be available.

I want to comment on the motor upgrade and the power supply, neither of which go with the below links.  So please take the following and post it anywhere you would like.  If I said anything inaccurate, let me know and I’ll correct it.

I have been the happy owner of an early iteration of the Galibier Stelvio for many years now.  I use it with a Durand Talea tonearm and Lyra Atlas cartridge.  The rest of my system is in the same league. 

I’ve heard many turntables at higher (and lower) prices but I’ve never been tempted to replace the Stelvio.  I have upgraded arms and cartridges over the years and the Stelvio has been more than worthy of the upgrades.  

But I have, from time to time, felt that the drive and/or power supply could be causing some small timing errors that were holding the table back particularly in terms of bass slam and image focus.

No more. 

Thom’s latest drive upgrade and an upgrade to the Teddy Pardo power supply (which Thom now specifies for his new tables), have not only fixed those issues, but have also brought the turntable to a truly world class level of performance.  It was night and day on a table that I didn’t think could get that much better.

It speaks to the engineering of the table itself that these inexpensive upgrades (about $200 for the drive upgrade and $400 for the power supply) yielded such great returns which were immediately recognizable. 

It speaks to Thom’s integrity and incredible level of customer service, that he spent a bunch of time researching and working on upgrades which yielded tremendous results and then offered them to his customers without it being a profit center for him (he makes nothing on the power supply and I’ve got to think the drive upgrade is pretty close to nothing). 

But that’s how Thom is; he builds one hell of a table, charges a fair price for what it is, supports it 100%, and continues to look for ways to make it better.  That’s a rare combination in audio world where overcharging and lateral upgrades are the norm.  

Check out one of Thom’s tables.  You won’t be disappointed.