No special test record is required to register that Sleipner and Co. elicit more room information than most competitors with well known recordings: The sound emanating from the speakers is happening even more naturally, imaginary rooms seem even more sweeping - I really have to pull myself together to avoid the obvious term "airier",  otherwise it would have been too close to a corny pun about the bearing technology of the Sleipner. The tonearm and turntable convey the music completely without any spectacle or effects. The Sleipner keeps the sound of the record in the foreground - the turntable is far too reserved to impose its own stamp on the whole thing. However, the quality of the tonearm and turntable steered clear of reproducing any mechanically induced artifacts like few others - again a parallel to the Continuum. This freedom from noise not usually detectable on the record, is first produced during the playback operation. It enables the Sleipner to apparently extract more information from the grooves. Of course, other turntables also pick this up. However, they do mask tiny fine information with only the slightest bearing noise.

Just for fun, I put on the stereo laboratory version of the London/Decca SXL 6529: Holst “The Planets” with an orchestra array like in a widescreen format picture, full of dynamics and emotion, and yet so refined as never before. Of course, there are Japanese audiophile pressings with slightly less operating noise than German or even American pressings. But, if my memory serves me correctly, the silence in the record grooves with no signal, thanks to the Sleipner, is once again even more intense. The instruments of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra shine more impressively and with stronger tonal colors than ever before. No wonder that I didn’t have to activate the tonearm cueing mechanism as I am used to doing during the sound spectacle "Mars", but let the record play through to the end. No, I do not want to invoke the cliché that you will re-discover your record collection with the Sleipner. But even if you have previously enjoyed your records with extremely good equipment, you are likely to discover even more room information and some additional detail with the Sleipner. Too bad that Johnnie Bergmann is going to pick up his top model soon to demonstrate it at the High End show in Munich. I can not say how well the rest of the system there will harmonize with the room or whether the neighboring exhibitors will be limited to volume levels that allow the great skill of the Sleipner to be experienced. If it plays there the way it did in my listening room, this experience alone justifies a visit to the trade show.

Briefly back to my initial thesis:  Thanks to its very special platter bearing technology, the Sleipner keeps itself sonically out of  the music more than almost any other turntable known to me. And this restraint is shared with its developer: There aren’t any showmen at work here.