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Fortunately I persevered. I decided to carry on following a procedure I adapted a long time ago, i.e. multiple playbacks of different tunes with different cartridges and if possible different tone arms. Already the second (Diana Krall’s All for You) and third (the Komeda Quintet’s Enigmatic) records proved my first impression wrong. The next records allowed me to understand why.


To get there I had to slightly change VTA and set the input impedance for the Kansui cartridge from 400 to 200Ω. This took all of 36 seconds to do. It turned out that this turntable was fully capable of differentiation between recordings depending on how the master tape was prepared. The basic difference was about whether the master tape had been digital or analogue. The pressings of digital tapes sounded somewhat dull and lean though not in the bass which I'll get back to.


They didn’t sound bad, mind you. Once you get used to this sound you might find that Autobahn, Techno Pop, Depeche Mode remasters and Yazoo actually sound pretty nice. It's when you compare the above Diana Krall and Analogue Productions remasters, even an exception like the Komeda record which I'm pretty sure was pressed from digital master tape that you realize how they clearly sound better. Their top range was amazingly vibrant, crisp and rich without being too bright. Images had a much richer texture and more depth too. This table doesn't cast a particularly wide soundstage but the respective volumes of voices and instruments are rather large and the depth of presentation is excellent to make for a very good albeit different presentation from most turntables which can throw a soundstage wider than the speakers are set apart. Here the presentation is more centrally focused and oriented on rhythm.

Actually most important for the sound was not being dark or dim. Waltz for Debby from Analogue Productions's first series Top 25 Jazz (45rpm) or Giant Steps (double 45rpm record on Rhino) presented an amazingly strong, rich and nicely differentiated treble. Although the latter album exhibits a bit less of it than the former, the Fonica proved fully capable of differentiating between these two masters from the same era. Even though ‘analogue’ pressings were better than digital master tape transfers, it didn’t mean that the latter became unlistenable or not enjoyable. The advantage of the F-600 was that despite displaying such recording weaknesses (be that a weakness of the master tape, mixing, pressing or other), after I passed the unpleasant surprise of just how badly some records sounded but got used to their presentation, I could still enjoy seemingly inexcusable EMI reissues from digital masters. I'm thinking the 2009 Queen Innuendo or three Frank Sinatra records like In The Wee Small Hours from the same year which obviously wasn’t a good one for EMI vinyl. Even though these sounded worse than the analogue masters or even the better digital remasters, they gave me a better perspective and a new experience to learn from.

You can't just simply trash the inferior discs and forget about them. I still have in my mind the wonderful sound from the Analogue Productions records, a Komeda record which became a wonderful surprise, Mobile Fidelity records from their regular line (the Silver Label was pressed from digital masters) and finally some original pressings from the 1950s and 1960s. I still appreciated and enjoyed listening to a lot of the best recordings with digital origins like The Doors box (has anyone compared this with the newest analogue remaster from Analogue Productions?), ECM records like Eberhard Weber's Chorus performed by Jan Garbarek and Ralf Hübner and many others.


Once you cross that bridge and appreciate how at least some digitally recorded music on vinyl sounds good—much better in fact that I thought after that first Kraftwerk record—you might become more open to the notion that some contemporary records pressed from high-resolution digital masters like 50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush might offer a very hypnotic sound. The opener Snowflake features not merely Kate Bush but also her son Bertie. The Fonica delivered his somewhat childish falsetto with incredible emotional depth to where I know very few turntables, even expensive ones, which would do as well.


To learn what this turntable is capable of takes more time that usual. If you audition it, remember that. What might help is its absence of pops and crackles. Many designs built for great detail and selectivity trap themselves by highlighting surface noise. Not the F-600! Whilst at first I thought this result was bought with a certain treble roll-off, the Komeda, Coltrane and Evans albums proved me wrong by delivering strong, crisp, vibrant cymbals instead. This Fonica delivers a truly dark background and a very smooth even silky sound. The sound itself might morph into something a bit brighter or darker, stronger/more directional or slightly rolled-off but this depends entirely on the album. Unless you spin some truly dirty vinyl, you also won’t get much noise.