If you are looking for your last record player before the vinyl disc disappears from the face of the earth, the Burmese physicist/poet of the phonograph has great news for you.

The finest flowering of an epoch sometimes occurs in its waning years, as a swan song, rather than at the peak of its vigor; Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, was both the last and the greatest of the baroque composers (his sons considered him old-fashioned but ended up being the old fogies of the next fashion). Such are the thoughts that come to us as we contemplate the decline and fall of the empire of the phonograph and examine the latest and best work of Dr. Sao Zaw Win, Burma's loss and the nuclear community's gain, phys-chem whiz, aesthete and phono technologist extraordinary. It would have been truly wonderful to have this kind of record-playing equipment when we bought our first stereo LP of Also sprach Zarathustra with Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Today Sao Win's crowning achievement will be judged against the best CD sound, and that is tough competition, sonically as well as fashionably.

It should be pointed out that Win Laboratories, the original Win audio company known for its uniquely creative engineering as well as its manufacturing and marketing ups and downs, has been superseded by the Win Research Group, which is a diversified high-tech operation deriving its income primarily from the medical/surgical market. We feel that this will be a stabilizing influence on the company's audio division and that certain Win products will now have the potential to become bread-and-butter items in the audio salons. In other words, it looks like Sao Win has his act together and is taking it on the road.

Win FET-10 Win Research Group, Inc., 7320 Hollister Avenue, Goleta, CA 93117. FET-10 Field-Effect Transducer with Source Module, $1850.00. Tested sample on loan from manufacturer.

This is the first genuinely new and different phono transducer system we have seen since we have been reviewing audio equipment. The pickup is neither moving-magnet nor moving-iron nor moving-coil nor ceramic nor crystal nor capacitive nor strain-gauge (like the old Win SDT-10) nor any other kind that comes with expert prejudgments already appended. Sao Win has moved into virgin territory here. The idea is to translate the motion of the stylus directly into a fairly robust electrical signal through a FET input stage, without the intervening agency of a generator. This specially constructed input FET is contained entirely within the cartridge body, the gate being physically separated from the semiconductor substrate and attached to the stylus cantilever, while the substrate containing the source and the drain remains fixed. Separate FETs are used, of course, for the left and right channels. The displacements of the stylus are imparted to the gate, thereby varying the electrostatic field strength in the device; that in turn results in variable current flow through the substrate, so that an electrical analogue of the cantilever motion appears at terminals. A power supply and a dedicated "source module" are part of the system; the latter incorporates a voltage gain stage and a special RIAA equalization network for each channel. A more precise and comprehensive explanation of the theory, design principles, construction techniques and calibration methods pertaining to the FET-10 can be found in the two excellent manuals available from the manufacturer.

The cantilever-stylus assembly, always Sao Win's long suit, is of a uniquely advanced design in the FET-10 and quite possibly contributes just as much to the superior performance of the system as the transducer itself. The cantilever is made of synthetic ruby (i.e., corundum), specially doctored during crystallization to enhance certain desired characteristics; the grain-oriented, laser-etched diamond stylus has a tip polish of 40 angstroms (!) and an entirely new tip geometry called "super ellipsoid." Designated as the Win SE-10, the stylus could be classified in the broadest sense to belong to the hyperelliptical or line-contact family, which also includes the Shibata (now obsolete), Van den Hul, Namiki Micro-Ridge and Paroc styli, but differs from these in several important respects. The SE-10 is smoothly rounded in the contact area; the cross section of the tip is a much flatter ellipse than in the case of the others; the foot print is longer than that of any other line-contact stylus, but the extension is upward along the groove wall rather than toward the bottom of the groove. In other words, it is an exceptionally wide, flat, tall and smooth-edged tip, designed to reduce misalignment, bottoming, mistracking and pinch effect to an unprecedented minimum. More than nine years ago we wrote that Sao Win "makes the most beautifully crafted styli known to us; they make others look like muddy baseball bats under the microscope." That remains basically true to this day. Stylus cantilever damping is inherent in the transducer design, eliminating the need for the usual rubber damping pads that tend to deteriorate with age.

Speaking of beauty, the aesthetic hallmark of the Win line is unmistakably evident in the FET-10 system, the cartridge being encased in transparent Plexiglas (with ruby accents) to match the Win turntables and their speed control units, whereas the source module has tasty little touches such as the power-on LED in the middle of the Win logo, which upon closer examination turns out to be not a red dot but a tiny, delicate. "Understated elegance" may be a trite expression but applicable here.

Like the Win strain-gauge transducer of the 1970's, the FET-10 is an amplitude sensor, in contrast to MM, MC and other magnetic cartridges, which are velocity sensors.

The RIAA preemphasis characteristic is not too far from constant amplitude, requiring only 21 dB of equalization from 20 Hz to 15 kHz with an amplitude sensor, as against 36.5 dB with a velocity sensor. Furthermore, unlike typical velocity sensors, an amplitude sensor has essentially linear response down to DC. In the FET-10, the RIAA equalization is both mechanical and electrical, split between the cartridge and the source module; a dual servo loop takes care of unwanted DC and infrasonic response. The source module has sufficient output to drive a power amplifier directly, without a preamplifier; for those who wish to use it that way, a pair of attenuator-controlled variable output jacks is provided, in addition to fixed outputs for connection to a preamp. The variable output connection results in the best signal-to-noise ratio, but we had absolutely no problem with the fixed outputs, either.

Measuring the FET-10 proved to be a bit difficult. To begin with, the RIAA de-emphasis characteristic, as such, cannot be divorced from the transducer response and measured separately, as in the case of a magnetic cartridge going into an RIAA-equalized phono stage. A further problem is that all the standard test records are designed with velocity sensors in mind and show various little peculiarities when measuring amplitude sensors, in addition to all the expected vinyl inaccuracies. Sao Win does not use test records at all but a very high-tech measurement system involving a laser vibrometer, a bidirectional vibration exciter (actually a specially adapted Neumann SX 74 stereo cutter head) and all sorts of electronics including some elaborate digital data processing equipment. We are totally upstaged and out classed here; all we can report is the general trend and thrust of our relatively crude tests with the Win SDA-10 tonearm.

We are satisfied that the FET-10 system, when playing RIAA-preemphasized records, is dead flat in response between, say, 90 Hz and 9 kHz, which is basically all that matters. The topmost octave was slightly elevated above the reference level in our measurements, but this may have been entirely vinyl-related as the test records disagreed on the magnitude and slope of the deviation. We also measured a bass boost beginning at approximately 90 Hz, unrelated to tonearm resonance, but here again the test records may have been at fault with possible inaccuracies in the constant velocity shelf of the RIAA characteristic below 50 Hz. The individual calibration curve delivered with our sample, made on the Win super test rig, shows +/-0.25 dB response from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, and we have no airtight evidence against it. The channel separation figures we obtained were also considerably worse than the Win specs; we measured in the high teens and low twenties through most of the spectrum, whereas Win claims a minimum of 32 dB at 1 kHz (per Neumann SX 74 excitation). We are in no position to speculate on the reasons for the discrepancy.

Regardless of measurement techniques, the proof of the design is in the listening, and there the FET-10 is very convincing indeed. We can generally state that we have never heard a moving-coil or any other kind of cartridge quite as transparent in sound and free from all suggestions of a mechanically vibrating device as this one. Somehow the physical contact between the stylus and the groove walls is not as audible here as in other phono transducers. The top end is fast, delicate, unstrained and airy; the midrange is completely natural, uncolored and believable; the bass is a bit full on some, but not the best, records (aha!) and remains consistently tight and detailed regardless. The stereo perspective is excellent and raises no questions about channel separation. As of right now, this is the one to beat, at least within the confines of the shrinking phono universe.

The price of the Win FET-10 is unapologetically high, but what it buys you is a complete volume-controlled front end for playing records, not just a cartridge. If you subtract from it the price of a preamp, it begins to look a little more reasonable. Besides, rabid phono supremacists will have to buy it willy-nilly.

Win SEC-10 Win Research Group, Inc., 7320 Hollister Avenue, Goleta, CA 93117. SEC-10 Reference Transcription Turntable,

$4000.00. Tested sample owned by The Audio Critic.

Sao Win was kind enough to send us all the parts required to turn our old SDC-10 turntable into the exact equivalent of the current SEC-10. The most important change is from belt drive to direct drive. The same high torque motor is used as in the old Technics SP-10 Mk II but with an all-important difference: a sophisticated optical encoder has been added to provide a tachometer system of unprecedented perfection. The result is a turntable drive totally free from cogging without the trade-off of possible belt slippage. Other improvements are a superior acoustic mat, developed through laser interferometry and triboelectric research, and a beautiful little speed-control consolette.

The sound? We have given up comparing Before and After from memory like the undisciplined rank and file of underground audio, but we can truthfully state that we enjoy the turntable even more than before and feel that maybe, just maybe, that extra torque has improved the bass.

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[adapted from TAC, Issue No. 11 Winter/Spring 1988]

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Also see:

Analog Electronic Components for Too Much and Just Enough Money

Cartridge, Arm and Turntable vs. the Groove: Who's Winning? [1977]