Parabolica Review by Eric van Spelde in HiFi+

Read Eric van Spelde's review (original, in German) here.

From HiFi+ (April 2025)

This is not simply a turntable review. Rather, it is an in-depth examination of an exceptional system for record playback, including signal processing down to line level. Compiled and perfected by Black Forest Audio CEO Gerd Volker Kuhn.

Exhausted

Grand Prix Audio: That sounds like the Olympus of motorsport, the endless search for that last hundredth of a second. While no theoretical solution - no matter how far-fetched it may seem - is ruled out from the outset, and the one found is always put to the test again at the next race.

It is precisely with this attitude that Alvin Lloyd, in a previous life a race car builder up to the IndyCar Series (the North American equivalent of Formula 1), develops and constructs his drives. And just as people who are influenced by flashy cars stand in front of a McLaren, Ferrari, or Red Bull Racing car and ask themselves, "And that's supposed to cost tens, if not hundreds, of millions?", those who are technically inexperienced are baffled by the sight of the Parabolica drive (the smaller of two models in the Grand Prix Audio range) when they learn that it costs €20,000 in its "bare" state. "I was even once asked by a man: 'Where, pray tell, is the value here?'" grins Kuhn. He knew from the start that he would probably only sell a single-digit number of the turntable, maybe 50—or even just two or three. The vast majority of customers who spend that amount on a turntable insist on an immediately tangible return—in other words, a large, heavy, visually imperturbable analog altar. Then you know what you're getting. The Parabolica, on the other hand, is barely larger than the records it plays. The round turntable isn't very heavy and stands in an elegantly curved manner on three equally not particularly large supports. Beneath the turntable, it's made of black carbon fiber with its typical checkerboard pattern. I find it gorgeous—but I belong not among those who can casually shell out tens of thousands of Euros for a record player. (Although, given the limited space in my four walls, its very reduced form would suit me very well.)

Despite the modest sales prospects, Kuhn absolutely wanted to have this record player in his portfolio, after he had once been immediately captivated by the sound of a system at a trade show that was a laurel wreath of Grand Prix models. He liked Lloyd's openness and straightforwardness; as Kuhn knows from the years he spent frequent weekends at the Hockenheimring, these qualities are typical of people involved in the motorsports scene.

Above all, however, he was won over by the design philosophy behind the Grand Prix drives. (The larger one, by the way, is called the Monaco, is twice as expensive, and houses its microprocessor-controlled speed control not in the chassis like the Parabolica, but in a separate housing that is significantly larger than the turntable itself.) Firstly, internally generated and external resonances are not addressed with seemingly endless material battles, but are quickly and effectively eliminated by a very light yet mechanically strong structure consisting of a milled aluminum inner skeleton and the aforementioned dampening carbon fiber composite outer shell. Secondly, it is a direct-drive turntable. This is nothing special in itself, but the way in which the speed of the DC drive is controlled and monitored is probably unique in the world: Using a clock generator with more than 74,000 lines, it is compared with the target value almost 300,000 times per revolution (!) and corrected if necessary. The average speed deviation is 0.00012 percent, and the maximum values are 0.00025 percent. This means: No matter what adventurous deflections the groove of the record currently playing imposes on the needle, and no matter which pickup in which tonearm is working with which needle pressure, the playback remains unswervingly stable. (The Monaco can do it even better, but either way, each test record will, by itself, produce much larger deviations – and other turntables, regardless of the drive concept, don't come close to this level of accuracy.) You wouldn't have thought that of the graceful "plastic drive" with the flat platter at first glance, would you?

Setting up the Parabolica is incredibly easy: Place the three supports, connected by ball bearings, underneath, align them horizontally in both directions (left/right, north/south) - that's it.

The platter and the moving part of the motor are firmly screwed to a platter bearing, as it rotates in a generously dimensioned oil bath. What seems more like a solid mass-driven than a direct-drive drive, according to the manufacturer, should function properly for a lifetime without ever needing to be opened by a service technician.

Nevertheless, Volker Kuhn still found room for improvement in some details. Despite the platter's solidity, a sound can be heard during the tap test. This can be prevented using the "DAD!MAT" platter mat, specially developed by Black Forest Audio and now quite popular. The record clamp supplied by Grand Prix Audio is also equipped with a damping material by Kuhn.

To ensure that the record sits as flat as possible, a ring is placed around the spindle and the entire assembly is pressed against the platter with a concave screw clamp. (The ring is available in three versions, which can be compressed to varying degrees to adapt to the record weight. Kuhn recommends the medium, white version for most cases.)

According to Volker Kuhn, using the Monaco's Apex feet instead of the included ones is highly recommended. While this costs an additional €2,000, the resulting sound improvement is said to be 80 percent of the added value offered by the more expensive model in this regard. That actually sounds like a worthwhile investment. So these feet are also included in the package that Kuhn put together specifically for the test. Depending on the surface, three Octagon Soundspacers made of a rubber-like material from Black Forest Audio can provide a further sound improvement. For me, they proved to be a great choice, especially due to the smooth, high-gloss lacquered surface of the furniture converted into a record player table. Very useful. (The latter is not resonance-free, but very light, so it stores very little energy.) The drive stands unshakably on the coasters, whose shape is reminiscent of the logo of the formerly British, and since 2005 Chinese, car brand MG.

But that's not all: The factory-supplied wall-mounted power supply has been replaced by a much higher-quality one (again costing €3,000), which – you won't believe it – is supposed to squeeze every last bit of stability out of the drive. Actually, this heavy lump with its classic dial meteron the front is designed to power externally excited loudspeakers, but Volker Kuhn had it converted into a turntable power supply specifically for the Grand Prix Audio drives – if so, then so. (Its exterior doesn't quite fit with the reduced-form design of the carbon fiber turntable, but what does it matter? Given the space constraints at home, it will be placed somewhere out of sight anyway.)

Since we were already in the process of throwing out pretty much all the conventions common to top-quality turntables, there was only one choice for me when it came to the tonearm: the ViV laboratory Rigid Float, specifically in the 7-inch version. The first version with an aluminum-magnesium tonearm tube; thus, the most radical counter-concept imaginable to what we thought we knew about tonearm geometry, which Kevin Scott, the man behind Living Voice and head of UK sales, describes as follows: "the tonearm equivalent of a horn-loaded loudspeaker, instant energy and no mess."

This choice had two consequences. The first was entirely pleasing: Of all the top-of-the-line turntables I know of, the Parabolica and Rigid Float combination takes up the least space (and looks damn good too). The second took some getting used to: Instead of using the tonearm base included with the turntable, the Rigid Float found its place next to it, freestanding on a tonearm column made specifically from POM (polymethylene). While the position of the arm on the column was sufficiently secured by the use of three small spikes included with the Rigid Float (provided you paid a bit of attention when adjusting the tonearm), the whole thing was pushed back and forth on the smooth surface during assembly and while routing the connecting cables, until I finally secured the column to it with double-sided adhesive tape.

Nevertheless, I was always initially concerned about the tonearm shifting relative to the showsimple template whether everything was still level (which will certainly decrease over time). When aligning the distance and angle of the tonearm using the template, there is only one point to consider, given the lack of offset.

With the combination of turntable, tonearm, and accessories, the package would have been complete for me; after all, I have several cartridges in my inventory that I consider adequate for my application – especially my prized Miyajima Takumi L. However, things turned out differently, because there was also the Murasakino Sumile and the Nobala transformer, which was specially developed for this MC system due to its very low output impedance. To consistently complete the system concept, after the cartridge had been optimally adjusted in a separate headshell and everything had been pre-recorded, two matching RCA cables were also added: the MS-DR20R and the TPL-2000R from Tiglon. The latter, a smaller, even higher-quality cable, was used to connect the tonearm and transformer. The turntable power supply, in turn, was equipped with the MS-DR20A power cable from the same manufacturer.

At this point, the total for the package reached a quite considerable amount: After all, not only does the cartridge have a price tag of 8,950 Euros, but the transformer also costs this amount. For one and a half meters of TPL-2000R, you pay 2,278 Euros; the meter of MS-DR20R costs a comparatively reasonable 640 Euros, and the power cable costs 780 Euros. Adding all of this together, we're already pretty close to 50,000 Euros – and then you'd have to add an adequate MM phono amplifier. At this level, it could easily be a Kondo, Air Tight, or "large" Allnic – under a five-figure sum, so it's not easy to find something suitable.

Before the actual test begins, the Parabolica, equipped with this equipment, is first examined on the Black Forest Audio reference system for tuning. The only difference: instead of the 7-inch ViV Laboratory Rigid Float HA tonearm, the 9-inch CA (carbon tonearm tube) is used.

This "pre-test" can be described as "simple star cooking with the finest ingredients": The small Kondo GE-1 phono preamplifier, the Engstrom Uirker Arne tube amplifiers with two 300B per channel, and the Living Voice OBX-RW3 loudspeakers are used, all connected with Tiglon cables,while, as in the image-hifi listening room, an Audioplan Powerstar power strip distributes the power, and the sound of various Black Forest audio accessories receives the final touches. Anyone who has ever walked away from trade shows shaking their head in the face of one or another battle of materials with gigantic loudspeakers and meter-wide racks full of outrageously expensive components can breathe a sigh of relief here. Not that you couldn't buy a terraced house for the price of this system in many parts of Germany - but here the result is actually in real proportion to the effort expended. A system that so convincingly removes itself from the action and lets the music speak for itself is very, very rare. At first, the music floats a little noncommittally in the room, but as the speaker moves along and the shutters on the glass front on the left side of the room close, it quickly becomes quite serious. At the very least, when Kuhn starts playing a well-recorded live recording of traditional jazz, it becomes clear that something extraordinary is happening here. It's not that I don't like jazz, but at trade shows, such music almost always makes me want to move on. As a rule, what's played there simply sounds too bland, too polished, too "small," too insignificant. Only once has it happened that I had the feeling that I wasn't listening to the background music at some garden party for the rich and old of our society, but rather that I'd been virtually transported to a steamy jazz cellar where sweat practically drips from the ceiling. With this system, I'm experiencing it for the second time: The music is up close, intense, almost physical, and possesses a pronounced dynamic.

Then I put Kraftwerk's album “The Man Machine” (Capitol Records, 1A 062-85444, NL ca. 1980 (1978), LP) from my own collection on the record player – a copy that has most likely been through a lot over the course of at least forty years on various players, but on the Parabolia it sounds downright fresh. I've never heard this album sound so crystal clear, open, rock-solid, and with such an almost insane drive, for example, in "The Robots," regardless of the type of media. I switch to David Bowie's early masterpiece, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust” and the Spiders from Mars (Parlophone, DB69734, worldwide 2017, 45th Anniversary Edition (1972), LP): "Pushing through the market place, so many mothers sighing, sighing..." The second "sighing," an echo so far removed from the first that it becomes a "thing in itself," takes my breath away: It comes across so completely free and clear, in its own "air," further behind the speaker base than I was used to, and completely free of any artifacts that might indicate that this is merely a reproduced acoustic event—that's what it must have sounded like back then in Trident Studios, or perhaps even the sound engineers didn't hear it quite so clearly on the studio monitors.

There's no point in talking about a "deep," "whatever" black background - here, there's simply only the acoustic event and nothing else. Meanwhile, I'm really immersed in the opening piece, which gradually builds up to the fade-out due to additional instrumentation.

For an immersive playback, if everything in the chain is right, only two speakers are needed...

What's also striking: the drums and electric guitar sound truly physical and dynamically unleashed, the piano strokes seem completely effortless, perfectly tuned, with enormous stability. Nothing slurs, nothing seems blurred, not even when you increase the volume. This sounds neither "analog" nor "digital," but simply like a largely perfect reproduction technology that neither adds nor removes any distorted holes. I know that doesn't actually exist and probably never will. But this combination makes it quite easy to renounce one's disbelief in this regard: a turntable whose owners, unless they have experience with other turntables, consider "wow and flutter" to be just a dictionary term, and which apparently removes resonances efficiently and with minimal energy loss from the scanning process; a tonearm that doesn't have to deal with the vagaries of a constantly changing anti-skating force and, like the turntable, is designed to minimize energy loss during the scanning process; a cartridge that, given this absolutely stable base, can extract even the smallest fine dynamic gradations from the groove with stoic calm. Last but not least, a specially developed top-class transformer and the optimal accessories to isolate the whole thing as much as possible from its surroundings and their potentially sound-limiting influences.

By the fourth or fifth track of the Bowie record, we finally awaken from our euphoria. Suddenly, the music slows down and finally comes to a complete standstill. Here we are confronted with a peculiarity of the Parabolica: After an hour of playtime, the electronics automatically switch themselves off. That's always enough for one record, but not for a quick change (which, despite the screwed-on record clamp, is possible with a bit of practice)... I make a mental note to turn the drive off and on again every time I change records, and have a final conversation with my host. (This reveals another peculiarity of the Parabolica: The drive has a light sensor instead of a switch.

If you hold your hand in front of it, the platter starts moving. If you do it again, it switches from 33 to 45 rpm, then again, and the drive stops. An LED indicator, which lights up either blue, white, or not at all and flashes as long as the target speed has not yet been reached, provides information about the current status, but always only after a few seconds when switching...)

A few weeks later, a shipping company arrives at my door with three large boxes from the publishing house. The rest of the afternoon and evening is spent unpacking – fortunately, we have now rented a special basement room for boxes – and setting up. The next morning, I'm even more excited than usual about trying out a new analog component. This isn't just due to the price of the complete package and the fact that this turntable and tonearm are quite different from what I'm used to, but above all because I've already experienced what this turntable can do in the right environment. Will my own system be able to keep up? I check the needle pressure and again the tonearm position in relation to the turntable and put on the Bowie album. Once again, I'm speechless. "Mission accomplished" ~ with the added bonus that I can now play both sides of the record in one go. Despite the occasional annoying niggle with my system, such as a slight hum or a pipe suddenly emitting a quiet hiss, its performance with this analog source device has increased to a level I had previously hardly thought possible. So, is there some truth to this source-first theory, which was pushed by a certain Scottish record manufacturer in the early 1980s, and resulted in systems being sold in the UK that consisted of the most expensive turntable, complete with a top-of-the-line tonearm and corresponding MC cartridge, a mid-range preamplifier, and a pair of shoebox-sized speakers in the hundred-pound category?

In the next few days and weeks, I discovered a lot more about my record collection. For example, that the electronic bass in Bjork's song "Hunter" (Homogenic, One Little Indian/Mother Records, 539 166-1, EU 2004 (1997), LP) is even more intense than I had previously thought.

Incidentally, through the lyrics, I delved deeper into the Icelandic artist's world of thought than I had before. Another new realization was that some of the reinterpretations of Moby's pieces on the orchestral album Reprise (Deutsche Grammophon, 483 9867, EUR 2021, 2-LP), which I had previously simply considered to be old, possess a subliminal energy and emotionality that touches you to the heart. Because the turntable doesn't give up even with large dynamic jumps and doesn't exhibit the minimal wow and flutter that occurs with other turntables, everything always remains completely organized and audible, the timing always spot-on, the stage unshakably stable! Dynamically, it leaves nothing to be desired, and with regard to tonal balance, you don't need to worry about this turntable and can safely forget everything you think you know about mass versus subchassis or lightweight turntables, belt or direct drive, and so on: This thing isn't "small." Period. And I don't mean that in a reductive sense. While elsewhere "neutral" is all too often a euphemism for "colorless," that's not the case here: If timbres are present in abundance, they are also projected into the room—and to a greater extent than one would expect from other turntables. In short:

The Parabolica consistently gets more music out of the groove than I've ever experienced before. With the range of components he assembled, Volker Kuhn has not only put the outstanding qualities of the record player into perspective – this may even apply to analog record playback itself. The Grand Prix Parabolica is, for me, not only the best turntable, but most likely also the most satisfying source device I've ever heard.

A Saturday morning at home: One record after another lands on the turntable of the Parabolica. Then a thought occurs to me that, as a consumer-shy, has only very rarely occurred to me in thirteen years, and then only with one or two somewhat "popularly" priced cartridges that I then bought: "I want that, little darling."

"We can't afford it," says my girlfriend (rightly, of course) and leaves. A few minutes later she returns: "Unless we stay in this two-and-a-half-room apartment for the rest of our lives."

If that isn't a devilish dilemma... ----p. 7 captions:

Previous double page, clockwise from top left: The Parabolica's chassis consists of an internal skeleton made of milled aluminum and an outer skin made of a vapor-coated carbon fiber composite, which also provides additional rigidity. The armboards, also made of milled aluminum, are screwed directly onto the internal skeleton.

Adjusting the horizontal tracking angle on the ViV laboratory Rigid Roat is incredibly easy with the included L-shaped template: If the needle is in the corresponding hole at the front and the tonearm tube is aligned with the long side of the template, everything is correct, and all that remains is to adjust the vertical tracking angle and, if necessary, the azimuth.

With the help of these rubber rings, placed around the platter spindle under the screw clamp, wavy records can be pressed onto the platter within a certain range.

The DAD!MAT from Black Forest Audio is actually a must for this turntable, especially since it is inexpensive.

Only with the optional Apex feet (included with the top-of-the-line Monaco model) and the slightly modified record pads by Volker Kuhn The Parabolica 's qualities can be fully exploited. The chassis and the moving part of the motor are firmly bolted to a platter bearing that rotates in a large oil bath.

p. 10 caption:

Instead of the included plug-in power supply, Volker Küihn uses a generously dimensioned DC power supply, whose origins lie in the power supply of externally excited loudspeakers.

p.12 Sidebar:

Players: : Acoustic Signature Challenger Mk3 Planar player with eight silencers in the turntable, two motors and two tonearm bases for 9"/10" and 12" tonearms), Lenco L75 (modified, with a self-built oak frame and mounting plate made of various layers of birch plywood (9/18 mm), Okoume 00 mm) and aluminum (1 mm), suspended on squash trestles), Zavfino Co~rhead X, RegaPlanar 3 Tonearms: Acoustic Signature TA-1000, Reed Series L (tonearm tube made of wenge, re-taped with C37 Finewire in the silver version), Rega RB 330 Cartridges: Miyajima Takumi L, Ortofon SPU Royal N, Onoton Quintet Black, Acoustic Signature MOO, Denon DL-160 MC Transformer: Audio Innovations Series 000 (modified: fixed, elaborately configured output cable, grounding) Phono preamplifiers: Allnic H-1500 USE, Audio Note UK Ml RIM (starting modified: including choke-loaded power supply, selected components), Acoustic Solid Phono CD players/drives: Pro-Ject CO Box OS, Rotel RCO-1570, C.E.C. TL-5100 (heavily modified and permanently connected to a DAC, bypassing the S/PDIF output via a Pink Falln cable IL-1 (balanced) D/A converter: Audio Note DAC 3.1 X NL Signature (with tube power supply from De Jong Systems, otherwise heavily modified) Preamplifier: Pink Faun Tube Pre (modified as desired) Power amplifier: Audio Note UK Quest 300B (midrange with standard and Audio Note 4300E power tubes), Welter Ebill (high frequency range, heavily modified, with TJ Full Music 2A3 power tubes and dedicated power transformers in a separate cabinet) Preamplifier: Copland CSA2B, Rotel RA-1570 loudspeaker: Avantgarde Acoustic Duo XD (modified and fully actively operated according to the Dedicated SET principle, designed for single-ended triode amplifiers with low power and minimal attenuation factor), power amplifier bandwidths are adapted to their operating range by correspondingly smaller coupling capacitors. Output capacitors in the preamplifier's tweeter output are adapted to their operating range, bass is DSP-corrected and room measured (manufacturer's service); Buchard Audio Anniversary 10 (wireless active loudspeaker) Cables: NF cable Pink Faun/Triple M Audio Shop, Wireworld, speaker cable DIY/Triple M Audio Shop, 47 Labs OTA 4708, Van den Hul The Clearwater; New cable ASR Magic-Cord, Avantgarde Acoustic, Furutech, Pink Faun, Titan Audio Eros and Eros Signature accessories: Ansul MainlB, Titan Audio Ares, Titan Audio Eros V2, Rittal with Belden cable; Furutech NCF Booster and NCF Booster Signal cable holders; Levar Twin record washer; Shure needle scale; Omex Symphony 2A and 3A Isolation mounts

p.14 Sidebar:

Grand Prix Audio Parabolica Planar Player -- Operating principle: DC direct drive. Special features: Chassis made of milled aluminum inner skeleton and carbon fiber composite exoskeleton. Planar platter made of aluminum alloy; integrated microprocessor-controlled, extremely precise speed control. Optional Apex foot €2,000. Optional BFA EX-101power supply €3,000. Dimensions: 33 x13 x33 cm. Weight: 12.5 kg. Warranty: 5 years. Price: €20,000.

Tonearm ViV Laboratory Rigid Float HA -- Operating principle: Straight rotary tonearm without offset. Length: 31 cm (overall). Effective length: 7 cm. Effective mass: 16 gm. Special features: Magnetic fluid bearing without a rigid connection between the tonearm and the base. Warranty: 2 years. Price: €3,984.

Cartridge: Murasakino Sumile -- Operating principle: Moving coil. Output voltage: 0.35 mV (1 kHz). Impedance: 1.2 ohms at 1 kHz. Frequency range: 10 Hz - 50 kHz. Tracking force: 1.0 g - 2.1 g. Stylus compliance: 8 μm/mN (at 100 Hz). Weight: 10.8 gm. Warranty: 2 years. Price: €8,990.

MC transformer: Murasakino Nobala -- Frequency range: 10 Hz - 70 kHz. Amplifier: 26 dB Terminal impedance: for systems < 5 ohms Dimensions: 16.6 x 9.5 x 15.5 cms, Weight: 2.6 kg Warranty: 2 years Price: €8,990

Contact: Black Forest Audio, Rosestraße 11, 76316 Maisch, Telephone:07246/6330, www.blackforestaudio.de