YY Sound Systems (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd‘s Mr.TK Han told me that his company be launching the TechDas Air Force 10 Air Bearing Tonearm (retails Japan Yen ¥5,000,000) for the Malaysia market,…with its Designer/ Engineer Hajime Shimizu and their Export Manager, Motofumi Hirata to install, demostrate and answer any question related to the Tonearm.
For that occasion, they were willing to come over to my audio den to install the Air Force 10 Tonearm on my Air Force 1 Turntable (the ‘First TechDas‘ sold in Malaysia with no reported fault thus far…after 12 years).
The listening session would be the day itself only and then to ‘another potential customer‘. Therefore, the review was not the usual weeks of serious listening,…expect the following to be an ‘Impression‘ from that Ultra End Tonearm on the similarly designed Turntable,…which employed similar Air Bearing.
They brought a ‘crate on trolley‘ to my audio den,…I didn’t expect the Tonearm came within a crate,…they explained that the tonearm came with its own Air Pump and Power Supply within the TechDas Premium Chassis.
I started to remove the Vertere Reference Tonearm (current model retail US$64,995) from the Air Force 1 Turntable.
While Hajime made quick work removing the Air Force 10 Tonearm from the crate, and asked me for my preferred Moving Coil (MC) cartridges to be install at their Tonearm for the listening session.
I took out my Koetsu Platinum Blue Lace and the ZYX Omega Gold for him to install at the Air Force 10 Tonearm.
The Air Force 10 Tonearm was connected to the FM Acoustics 223 Phono Master/ Linearizer via an Ortofon phono cable with Din to RCA.
My Air Force 1 Turntable has a number of tonearms installed; the Graham Phantom II, Swedish Analog Technologies SAT, Breuer Dynamic 10C and Vertere Reference.
As a turntable, the Air Force 1 was a (almost dead) silence, accurate and neutral colored performer.
The inclusion of the Air Force 10 Tonearm to the Air Force 1 Turntable proved to me that there was…
More Silence to be had, thus More Resolution of the Music to be Heard.
The Background was Darker and Quieter,…
Details were more Audible and Prominent.
The Soundstage has that Deeper Depth,…
or was it that the Detail buried Deepest was Unveiled/ Revealed?!
The Notes were presented Fuller and to their (intended) Completion!
There were the noted Bloom and Dimensions to each Note played.
Each Musical Presentation of ‘Whatever Genre‘ was Cleanly and Orderly presented.
A Full Orchestra was presented with Segregation, Delineation, Space, Air (thus Atmosphere) and with Explosive Dynamic!
The Bass was Clean, Well Defined, Articulated, Stable, Rightly Volumed and Went As Low As The Recording Permitted!
DREAM TO BE THE FEW.
After that few hours of intense listening to the Air Force 10 Tonearm, I was Impressed with the Design, Sound Quality, Built Quality and Features,…at that level of Performance and Manufacture, I understood that the asking price would be commensuratively steep. Understandably, the Air Force 10 Tonearm was meant for the Few.