DS Audio DS 001 Eccentricity Detection/Correction Device Since the advent of Thomas Edisons cylinder-based phonograph in 1877 and Emile Berliners disc-based gramophone a decade later, the record player has brought pleasure to untold millions. It is a brilliant invention that literally changed the way the world experiences music. Before it was introduced, a listener had to go to a concert, recital, or dance hall (or be musical enough to play an instrument) to hear an ensemble or a singer and accompanists perform; after the gramophone and the rubber/shellac/vinyl disc became commercial realities, he and his family and friends could enjoy the music of their choosing in their homes any time they wanted. From the start, the gap between the sound of recordings and the sound of the real thing has been an issue. Back in the day, folks like Edison used to conduct demonstrations in which live vocalists and recorded ones (often recorded to the cylinder on the spot) performed side by sideto demonstrate how small that gap was. At the time, people were amazed by the authenticity of the recordings! Times change, of course, and what was considered the highest-fidelity playback at the turn of the twentieth century now sounds coarsely mechanical. The stability and silence with which todays turntables rotate, the precision with which tonearms and cartridges track grooves, and the quality of the recordings themselves are infinitely betterand that chasm between live and Memorex has, indeed, been narrowed. Still, some things, some drawbacks, havent been addressedand one of the most persistent of them will be the subject of this review. Today we dont pay much attention to the wow and flutter figures of turntables. Typically, the rates at which they rotate the LPs atop them have become so precise that frequency and pitch instability (caused by fluctuations in playback speed) arent the problems that they once were. However, wow and flutter isnt only induced by turntables. As REG never tires of pointing out, some degree of eccentricity (the opposite of concentricity or perfect centring) can beand most likely isbuilt into all your vinyl recordings, either because of a slightly offset spindle hole or an imprecise pressing, in which the puck of heated vinyl was not perfectly centred beneath the stamper, or the stamper itself was slightly canted in its carriage. Why should the concentricity of an LP be so important? For two reasons. The first, in DS Audios words, is that unstable rotation [owed to the eccentricity of the grooves] causes fluctuations in pitch across the frequency range. The second is that if record eccentricity is not corrected, the cartridge and tonearm will sway from side to side as they trace the groove walls, impairing the stylus ability to accurately read the signals engraved in them, resulting in muddiness and an unstable sonic image. DS Audio contends that LP eccentricity can result in wow and flutter values that are 20 times worse than those of a turntable alone. So, how come no ones done something about this longstanding and quite audible problem? Well, someone did. As readers of REG know, in 1983 the Japanese firm Nakamichi introduced its direct-drive Dragon-CT Computing Turntable with an integral viscous-damped tonearm. This ingenious device not only measured the eccentricity of LPs (via a separate sensor tonearm) but corrected for it by moving the platter itself so that concentricity was made perfect. Alas, the Nakamichi Dragon-CT is no longer manufactured, though used samples can still be found on the Internet (for a pretty penny). Of course, the Dragon-CT was, by todays standards, a bit of a one-trick pony (though its trick was phenomenal). Since its drive system and dedicated tonearm were early-80s tech, the best contemporary tables and arms outperform it in every way, save onethat unique ability to measure and correct for the wow and flutter induced by LP eccentricity. Since Nakamichis Dragon-CT, no company I know of has introduced a product specifically intended to deal with the almost inevitable eccentricity of LPs. Until now. Meet the DS Audio ES-001 Eccentricity Detection Stabilizer. At $6000, it aint cheap. And, of course, it only does one thing. But, boy, does it do it well. Invented by the same DS Audio team (headed by Aki Aoyagi) that has brought you progressively more and more marvellous DS optical cartridges, the ES-001 is a 2.75-tall, two-part cylinder that fits over your turntables spindle. There is a 2.4 touchscreen display panel on its top face, a power button near its base, and a rear screw (opened with a supplied Allen wrench) to remove the case when replacing batteries or updating software via a supplied cable. As noted, the ES-001 has two interconnected and independently articulated parts. The taller sectionthe case-enclosed chassishouses the electronics and the two AA batteries; the small cylindrical portion beneath it is intended to rotate with the record, while you hold the large top portion still. Once the ES-001 is turned on and the record and the bottom part of the ES-001 are rotating at speed, you trigger infrared LED lights and sensors built into the chassis to emit and receive beams, which measure the concentricity of the lead-out groove of the LP revolving around them, turning that data into a diagrammatic readout on the touchscreen panel that shows you exactly how eccentric your LP is. Assuming you have enough play between the turntable spindle and the spindle hole in the LP, you then turn off the turntable and push the LP in the direction that reduces its eccentricity, as shown on the LED screen diagram. Keep pushing or wiggling until the words The centre is OK appear on the screen (some of the time a small nudge is enough to do the trick), and you have now corrected the LPs eccentricity. If you dont have enough slack in the spindle hole to push the LP into perfect alignment, DS supplies a reamer that allows you to enlarge the spindle hole so that you have more room to adjust the position of the record. (If it isnt obvious, be aware that enlarging the spindle hole with the reamer is an irreversible processnot that youre likely to do any serious damage to your LP, save for making it fit less tightly on the spindle youre presently using.) While not unduly massive at 620 grams (1.37 pounds), the ES-001 has enough heft to serve as a record clamp once youve finished your measurements and adjustments and turned the device off. Of course, there are myriad dedicated record clamps on the market, all with their own sonic signatures. Whether you prefer the sound of the ES-001 when it is used as a clamp will be a personal decision. One thing that wont be a matter of opinion, however, is the sound you get after centring your LPs. The sonic improvements that the ES-001 makes are consistent and consistently positive. They are almost exactly like the differences you see in a photo that was taken with a camera on a tripod and one that was taken handheld. Blur disappears, the focus becomes tack-sharp, colours are more distinct and natural, depth of field and of the image are clarified, ambient space around images is expanded, and performance/orchestration/recording details that were slightly fudged arent anymore. It is really quite a remarkable step toward neutrality and completeness, without which, of course, instruments and instrumentalists dont sound as realistic. If the ES-001 has a downside (other than its price), it is a peculiar one. To wit, Ive been listening to certain LPs for better than 50 years, and Im used to the way they sound with varying degrees of eccentricity (and varying amounts of wow and flutter) uncorrected. It can be a little disconcerting to hear them with those distortions removed. It may not be particularly the absolute sound of me to say this, but, if youre used to it, a certain amount of blur can be rather lovely, in the way that a pictorialist (as opposed to a realist) photograph or painting can look lovely. It certainly makes an old, favourite recording sound familiar (and not hearing it, doesnt). This said, there is no question that the ES-001 is a brilliant and successful bit of engineering. It does exactly what it is intended to do; it is easy to use (once you get the hang of it); and it unquestionably removes blur from and increases the neutrality and completeness of every LP Ive used it with. If lifelike pitch and timbre, improved image focus, clarified sound staging, and higher resolution are prime considerationsand how could they not be?an LP lover could not put $6000 to better use than by purchasing an ES-001. It is not just a work of genius; it is a step change in analogue playback and, quite appropriately, one of 2022s TAS Products of the Year. (For vinyl fans, Id have to say it is the Product of the Yearor Century.) Specs Pricing Material: Aluminum and tungstenPower supply: Two AA batteriesUser interface: Touch panel (2.4 inches)Dimensions: 80mm D x 70mm HWeight: 620g (including batteries)Price: $6000
