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REPRODUCING THE RECORDED ARTS MAY 2014 •111 www.hifiplus.com

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Mizik re-writes the digitAl rulebook

Merrill-WilliaMs helps keep vinyl r.e.a.l.

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71 ISSUE 111

Merrill Williams REAL 101 turntable by Jim Hannon

If you ever lived with the AR XA turntable or one of its successors (XB, XE, ES-1, ETL-1, EB101), you may well have installed some of the popular ‘Merrill mods’ that helped lift the sonic performance of that

entire turntable family. These ranged from enhanced speed controllers and motors, to acrylic-lead turntable mats, acrylic subchassis, centre and outer clamps, and improved parts, among others.

While continuing to offer turntable mods and accessories, George Merrill designed the Merrill Heirloom in the late 1970s, an extension of his previous work

EQUIPMENT REVIEW

and experimentation with AR turntables. Merrill claims that the Heirloom was the first ’table to use acrylics as well as a periphery clamping ring, and it also employed a dedicated motor controller for enhanced speed accuracy, fluid damping, and several other unique features to effectively control resonances and manage energy dissipation, including a one-piece acrylic subchassis.

Having ceased manufacturing the Heirloom around 1996, George collaborated with Anthony Scillia in 2002 on the Merrill-Scillia Research MS-21 with Scillia taking Merrill’s Heirloom design to its most fanatical endpoint, with aerospace-grade materials, and springs, machined from solid billets of hardened aluminium. All these improvements came at a steep price, yet the MS-21 still looked quite pedestrian. However, I heard the MS-21 on several occasions, and was stunned by its remarkable performance, if not its physical beauty. When George told me that he thought his new MW-101 turntable “blew the MS-21 away,” it definitely piqued my interest.

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EQUIPMENT REVIEW / Merrill WilliaMs real 101 turntable

The Merrill-Williams R.E.A.L. (an acronym for Rubber Elastomeric Acoustic Laminate) 101 is a collaboration between Merrill and Robert Williams, an innovator in his own right as a co-founder of Memphis’ legendary Ardent record-mastering lab, in addition to his considerable experience in record pressing and loudspeaker design. What makes the MW-101 unique is its extensive use of rubber elastomers virtually everywhere that resonances might occur. I heard a pre-production model a few years ago, driving Quad electronics and ESL-2805 loudspeakers, and was very impressed.

Having lived with a current production model of the Merrill-Williams R.E.A.L. 101 (MW-101) in my own listening room for some time, my appreciation of its outstanding virtues has continued to grow. The MW-101 has many of the same beguiling sonic strengths as my reference front-end, the UHA-HQ Phase Six, coming surprisingly close to this reel-to-reel deck’s performance, particularly in transparency, midrange openness, fine detail retrieval, and top-end purity and balance on Antonio Lysy at the Broad: Music From Argentina [Yarlung Records]. No, it didn’t have quite the incisive bass articulation, micro- and macro-dynamic intensity, and overall immediacy of the tape, but that may well be a function of the ’arm and cartridge (more on this later). Nevertheless, both analogue sources have an uncanny ability to transport you to the recording venue, and they sound more alike than one might expect.

When I listen to Soulmates [Riverside/Acoustic Sounds] on the MW-101, the leading edge of transients, like those on Philly Joe Jones’ drums and cymbals, are crystal clear, without any blurring, and have amazing snap. Overtones soar without distortion or compression, yielding a harmonic truth to all the instruments, like Ben Webster’s saxophone and Thad Jones’ cornet.

The MW-101’s lack of audible bearing or groove noise lets music emerge from a pitch-black background with near-reference-quality transparency and presence on well-recorded music, like the David Abel/Julie Steinberg performance of Beethoven and Enescu Sonatas [Wilson Audiophile], the Ella Fitzgerald/Joe Pass collaboration Take Love Easy [Pablo], or Nick Drake’s Pink Moon [Island Records]. Everything is well-balanced across the frequency spectrum, without resonant peaks in the upper midrange or highs, a common source of aural fatigue, yet the music sounds alive. On more musically dense recordings like the Brahms Violin

“The MW-101’s lack of audible bearing or groove noise lets music emerge from a pitch-black background with near-reference-quality transparency and presence on well-recorded music, like the David Abel/Julie Steinberg performance of Beethoven and Enescu Sonatas, the Ella Fitzgerald/Joe Pass collaboration Take Love Easy, or Nick Drake’s Pink Moon.”

Concerto in D Major [EMI] and Miklós Rózsa’s Quo Vadis [Decca], the MW-101’s wonderful clarity enables one to follow individual musical lines easily, and the soundstaging is broad, deep, stable, and precise.

How have Merrill and Williams achieved this remarkable performance? They had to start with a ‘clean sheet of paper,’ because the Heirloom design had already been taken to its limits by the MS-21. Whereas the Heirloom and Merrill-Scillia turntables were spring-suspended, the MW-101’s elastomer plinth rests on three inverted hemispherical elastomer feet. George claims that by using this approach, the new ’table is still a suspended plinth, or more appropriately, an isolated plinth with energy rejection from the elastomer feet and the isolated feet posts that go up into the elastomer of the plinth.

The plinth of the MW-101 is not just a hunk of rubber sandwiched by aluminium but rather a well-engineered platform, designed as a laminate to dampen and dissipate energy. The motor, platter, spindle/bearing, and tonearm are isolated by breaches in the aluminium-rubber laminate (Energy Isolation Valleys), and the energy developed by each part is absorbed and dissipated by the plinth’s rubber-compound elastomer core before it can affect any of the other operating parts. A support-truss system using seven struts within the plinth helps keeps it rigid.

The MW-101 platter offers yet another reported industry ‘first.’ It is made of a Bakelite, cellulose, and resin compound resulting in a high-density, remarkably dead platter with a Q that is quite broad—plus the material is also extremely dimensionally stable. Its integral rubber-cork compound mat helps to minimize vibrations within the vinyl, allowing the stylus to trace the record better. It also has a very-low-noise bearing system as the hardened thrust ball at the end of the precision-ground stainless-steel platter-shaft glides with virtually no friction over a hardened surface in the oil-well bearing, manufactured from MDS-impregnated nylon—another industry first.

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EQUIPMENT REVIEW / Merrill WilliaMs real 101 turntable

technical specifications

Type: Rubber Elastomer Acoustic

Laminate turntable, featuring optional

clamping system with damped centre

weight and damped periphery

clamping ring with strobe.

Rotational Speeds: 33 1/3 RPM, 45 RPM.

Supported Tonearm Length(s): 9-inch.

Drive Mechanism: Belt driven via

AC motor.

Speed Control: Crystal-controlled dual

oscillator microprocessor power supply.

Platter Type: Bakelite, cellulose and resin

compound, with cork compound mat

Platter Weight: not specified.

Bearing Type: Elastomer suspended

MDS impregnated oil-well bearing, with

17mm polished stainless steel spindle.

Plinth Configuration: rubber-aluminium

elastomer sandwich construction for

energy dissipation.

Dimensions (HxWxD): 250 x 430 x 370mm

Weight: 19kg

Price: £3,950 turntable only; £4,475

including clamping system

Manufacturer: Merrill-Williams Audio, LLC

URL: www.realturntable.com

UK Distributor: High Fidelity International

URL: www.soundaudio.eu

Tel: +44(0)20 3372 4237

The Merrill-Williams Clamping System comprises a centre weight and periphery ring, and is designed for even down-force on the entire record. Energy radiated as the stylus traces the groove is absorbed by the damping inlay in the periphery clamp before it is reflected back into the groove area. The centre weight, with its large rubber knob, also absorbs energy and helps eliminate resonant peaks. A rubber insert in the spindle bore decouples the weight from the record spindle. The 101’s record clamping system increases the system’s transparency, clarity, and ability to deal with warped records.

George Merrill was the first to introduce a separate motor-speed controller for a turntable, and the motor-drive control unit for the MW-101 was designed by another industry veteran, Ron Sutherland. The included Microprocessor Motor Drive employs crystal-controlled, adjustable dual oscillators to drive the two high-power, low-distortion amplifiers that power the motor. It not only allows the user to easily switch between 33 and 45 rpm play, but also to make minute adjustments to rotational speed even when the stylus is in the groove. The controller also buffers the turntable-drive system from AC line variations, helping the MW-101 maintain accurate pitch stability, and also contributing to its outstanding clarity, resolution, and imaging precision. A Sutherland Timeline is used to certify speed accuracy on all MW-101s.

My MW-101 took another step up in clarity, transparency, and bass solidity and articulation, when mated with the new Ortofon TA-110 tonearm. The TA-110 has elastomer damping of the armtube, which is “in tune” with the resonance-management design philosophy of the Merrill-Williams R.E.A.L. 101. George asserts that, although the Ortofon TA-110 is not as good as the top-of-the-line Grahams and Tri-Planars, “it comes darn close at a lot less money.” (This is also true of the Ortofon Cadenza Black cartridge)

As good as the MW-101 is—and it is very good—it falls short of the best turntables in a few areas. The R.E.A.L. is much more attractive than the Heirloom and MS-21, but it doesn’t have the stunning looks and ability to accommodate multiple arms of many reference turntable systems. While its speed stability approaches that of a direct-drive ’table, one can still see slight, minute variations in the strobe markings during each rotation (possibly due to belt slippage), although I never heard any pitch variation on sustained tones.

As one might expect from the man responsible for so many turntable innovations, George Merrill’s latest turntable, in collaboration with Robert Williams, breaks new ground in its approach to energy management by ingeniously and effectively damping and dissipating resonances wherever they lurk. Music emerges with such exceedingly low coloration and distortion that transparency, fine detail retrieval, openness, and clarity are surprisingly close to what one experiences when listening to a mastertape. The Merrill-Williams R.E.A.L. 101 turntable should be a revelation to those who want to get closer to the sound of a live performance without breaking the bank.

This review was originally published in The Absolute Sound, issue 225. Merrill-Williams has announced it will be releasing a revised version of the deck, addressing some of the points raised in this review. There is also a forthcoming model, called the Epiphany, planned to be a complete turntable system for less than the basic cost of the R.E.A.L 101. Watch this space.

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