Oracle Delphi Mk VI Record Player

Jonathan Valin has posted his review of the Oracle Delphi Mk VI turntable ($8,500), Oracle/SME V tonearm ($5,950) and Oracle/Benz-Micro LP S-MR moving-coil cartridge, ($5,500) at The Absolute Sound. His conclusions:

I could happily live with the Oracle Delphi Mk VI’s presentation. In fact, I think I did live with it—or at least a considerably less refined version of it—years ago, with the Panasonic SP10 MkII, which had some of the same pace and clarity and also, like the Oracle, slightly thinned down timbre (though it did not have nearly as much bloom and air and light as the Delphi Mk VI). Yeah, the Walker Proscenium Black Diamond Mk II will give you more—of just about everything (except, perhaps, for pace and presence). It is, overall, the more neutral and faithful presentation (so, with slightly different emphases, is that of the AAS Gabriel/Da Vinci record player). But for the money (and it is so much less money), this package gives you everything a lot of “absolute sound” and “as-you-like-it” listeners are looking for in a high-end phonograph: lifelike presence, lifelike transient speed, tremendous foreground/background separation, superb imaging, wall-to-wall soundstaging, toe-tapping pace, outstanding resolution of inner detail, and fool-you-realistic reproduction of everything that plays in the low bass, midbass, mid-mids, upper mids, and treble. As any vintage ARC owner can tell you, this combination of sonic virtues goes a long way toward creating a lifelike presentation. To go all the way will cost you at least forty thousand dollars more. If you’re made out of money, go right ahead—you’ll get what you pay for. If you’re reaching for the stars in analog playback but don’t have Walker or Da Vinci dough, then I can’t think of a better place to pitch camp than here with the Oracle Delphi Mk VI.

You can read the full review here.