This is a turntable I’ve been waiting a long time to hear: Dr. Feickert’s Woodpecker. The Woodpecker is the base model in Feickert’s line ($6,500 USD), and Vana Ltd. (US distributor) specifies black-anodized, brushed aluminum for the top plate, with gloss-black piano for the standard plinth finish. The optional Rosewood plinth pictured here is $500. Vana Ltd. had set up this room and was showing off a nice mix of gear that sounded full-bodied, without the obvious detail being pulled from the grooves getting in the way of the music. The Woodpecker was kitted-out with what I believe was a Jelco tonearm because the Acoustical Systems Aquilar tonearm ($11,500 USD) wasn’t available, the Acoustical Systems Archon MC cartridge ($3,370 USD), and the Acoustical Systems Helox record clamp ($750 USD). Power duties were handled by Primare with the PRE32 preamp/Media ($4,500 USD) on hand for signal shuffling, the A34.2 power amplifier ($3,000 USD) supplying the juice and the R32 phono stage ($1,500 USD) taking care of all the good vibrations from the record grooves being passed on by the Archon. All the cabling and power supply duties were IsoTek. While the Woodpecker is the base model with the Blackbird ($9,000 USD) [...]
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