Schiit Sol- The Next Great Turntable?

I checked it out over the weekend at RMAF.
I do still like it from what I saw in person, however when I asked the Schiithead at the table about leveling, he quite condescendingly said while looking the other way, "we think you should put it on a level surface."

So there you go, it is perfect, and it needs no leveling.

 

I'm looking forward to this baby being the foundation for many creative tweaks!

 

He's right, of course. If you want to make the most of it you'll place it on a level isolation platform.

That's not to excuse the fellow's condescending demeanor, but most people interested in this deck likely won't need levelers. I know I won't, but the feet appear to be threaded if someone wants to add their own.

 

Weren't they also planning an isolation platform for the SOL? Maybe that had leveling capabilities.
Was it the Schiit Box?
Now I remember, the The Floater. What happened to that?

 

Classic Schiit... Never owning up to their own design flaws.

 

That play on words gave me a chuckle.

 

Got flushed down the toilet ?!

 

I've not had much experience with the company. But the products which I have seen first hand have represented very impressive quality at their price points.

 

I was thinking about the leveling, and I got a cheap set of speaker spikes that are independently and quickly leveled that i plan on using if need be. I can always upgrade later. My Sol is arriving on Friday. I plan on using 2 cartridges. Both Grados. A Reference 2 Reference, and a Prestige Gold. I want to baseline with the gold and then shoot the moon with the $1500 R2R.

 

Cool! Tell us how it goes.
.

 

Unbelievably arrogant and stupid. Some will have a solution for a level platform, and some would like basic leveling capability. I would have welcomed the opportunity to get in his face.

 

Is anyone thinking about making boxes for the extra tone arms? I would be very interested in something custom that holds it well, protecting it and the stylist.

 

The ‘Schiit-Box’? Schiit-Can?
.

 

They're actually actively trying to discourage anyone but advanced users who like to tweak from purchasing this table. If you can't figure out a way to provide a level surface or rig up leveling feet, you're probably not in the target demographic.

 

They offer extra arms but I'd like to see them offer an extra motor, if it isn't expensive.

 

I just spent 2 hours with this table. A friend of mine ordered it on day one and tasked me with the set-up.

Let me first say that I am very impressed with the build quality of this table for it's price. Seriously, I think if they included a decent cartridge and factory set-up, they could easily charge 3 times the price.

Now for the bad:

I am having trouble aligning a couple of cartridges on the arm.

I am using Dr. Feickert set-up tools (much more reliable than a paper printout). I will not claim to be an expert, but I have set up many turntables for friends, and years ago for customers. Try as I might, any Ortofon cartridges I tried do not seem to work on the arm. The static headshell does not have enough room to move the cartridge far enough back to align properly. The cartridge clips supplied by Schiit hit the back of the headshell before being close to proper alignment. I tried a 2M Red and a Quintet Bronze to verify this.

In desperation I found an old AT 440Mla in my tool box. I was able to just barely mount this cartridge properly ( the distance between the back of the cartridge and stylus tip is shorter.)

So finally we have a properly mounted cartridge! So, is the arm designed in a way that only shorter cartridges will align correctly? I will have to speak with Schiit this week and ask. This seems like a pretty serious design flaw when you are basically eliminating a large part of the cartridge market from being usable on the arm. Or perhaps, I have missed something and Schiit can help us figure this out.

That being said, with the properly set up AT 440mLa cartridge, this table sounds fantastic! It's not even in the same ballpark as the Pro-ject Debut Carbon Esprit (600$) that my buddy was using.

I will try to post after I talk to Schiit. Meanwhile I would encourage you to be patient before buying.

Hope this helps for a few people. Again I am not an expert on reviewing tables so take this with a grain of salt. I really hope this table ends up being great as there really isn't much like it in the sub 1k$ price range.

Apologies for any spelling and grammar errors.

 

Is Feickert Baerwald? Stevenson?

 

The Feickert has multiple alignments, I used Lofgren A since that is what the Schiit one used.

 

Did you also attempt to use the paper printout that came with the table when you couldn't get it to align with the Dr. Feickert? It may be using some sort of modified version of Löfgren A.

 

Looks very interesting. I like the design ok. Potentially great price point, depending on actual performance.

I know they took a long time in R&D on this but I’d still be nervous about taking the plunge on a heretofore digital company’s first turntable.

Looking forward to the reviews

 

Please let us know what they say about longer carts. One of the 2 i plan on using is long, so I will also ask. I also have a O Red sitting around, i might try that first to get a feel for the issue you are having.

 

Curious as well.

They seem pretty high on the DL-103r - it that longer or shorter?

 

I'm still working on coffee #1, but why so much talk about leveling the turntable? I don't see the same talk when discussing Rega tables. Is it because of the outboard motor?

 

Schiit makes the claim that it's adjustable in every way, so people were just trying to figure out its leveling capabilities. If the feet are indeed threaded as someone else mentioned, maybe it's trivial to level it. I think they clearly said it's not plug and play though, so they didn't claim to include everything you need.

The arrogant response is just typical of Schiit, who are treated like the saviors of audio over on headfi. They do make some good stuff, but they could also make junk and it would be swallowed whole as the 11th commandment Moses left up on the mountain, praise schiit! In all seriousness, Jason's ego is the primary reason I will wait out the Sol and see how it does for a few months. Other than ego, it seems a great company. Only own one of their dacs, but incredibly happy with it.

I'm sure the Sol will need some end user tweaks, but that's ok. Everything at this price point can use some tweaking.

 

I considered it, but just took the head shake route...

I was going to ask why they chose on off-center punched copy of Led Zeppelin I to play in the booth, but I guessed it was so we could see how that long arm really sways, you really did notice the extra long arm!