Adventures in Table Shopping


At nearby Goodwin's High End recently I was turntable shopping (My Linn Basik/Akito is getting a little old but still works great) and the "Turntable Expert" there (older, distinguished looking dude) who was assisting me first utterly ignored my query about a Pro-Ject "The Classic" table I was thinking about (really…like I was speaking Mandarin), and was only interested in pushing a Rega P3 with a Funk Firm arm and a Hana cart. Sends the unused Rega arms to Sota he said. Fine. He gets a Funk arm for me to look at and doesn't notice it's just a Rega and not the Funk arm and fumbles it back into the box, noting he doesn't have the Funk arm. Oh well…he lopes  off to help somebody with a speaker (no biggie)…at some point notes that he is a huge Linn user, has 3 modded and "special" ones, loves MC cartridges, and says you shouldn't use them with metal platters (Linn freak…aluminum isn't magnetic…weird again). He's busy to some degree (and there's literally 3 customers there) and I ask him to write down the model of the Funk Firm arm and I'll look it up later…he writes it on his card and off I go (although I had wandered around the store for a while to look at the exotica…sweet…). I get home and when I try to find the arm, the model number for the arm doesn't exist anywhere including the Funk Firm site, and realized this person is the poster boy for what's wrong with high end audio. I now doubt that Goodwin's will ever see any of my cash, and, hopefully I'll never see that dude again. Lame, but not totally unexpected. I had a better experience there a couple of years ago, but they didn't have a Linn belt to sell me and weren't very interested in getting me one, so, again, meh...
wolf_garcia

Showing 3 responses by raymonda

Wolf Garcia,

If you are interested in the Project Classic you might consider my new build, which is just being finished off. It is a totally Hot Rodded TD 150. Only the chassis, platter and bearing assembly from the 150 was used, with the rest being new components selected for their quality in accordance to this build. (Origin Live Advanced motor/Jelco 370, custom cherry plinth, well damped chassis, carbon fiber etc.

A custom dust cover is being fabricated and will finish the project. I've modded a number of tables in the past and this is my 4th Thorens and second 150. This one pulls out all the stops. It is posted over at Audioasylum and with full discussion over at taperssection.com in playback.

This table takes the best from the classic tables of yesterday and pushes to a level that delivers today.

This is not intended to be a shameless plug for my table but rather in response to what it appears you are looking for.

BTW, sorry about you bad experience at Goodwins. I've never visited their store but I would suggest that you give them another shot. If the experience remains consistent, well.....................
Note there's no section in audio asylum called "playback" that is obvious, so that's that.

No, you would need to go to www.taperssection.com and then to their "playback" section.

A good inexpensive cartridge can out perform an expensive one if it is well matched and set up properly. Take the lowly Denon Dl 103. Slight mods, well matched and set up well and it will out perform many much more expensive cartridges. 
Yes, as I mentioned, an inexpensive cartridge, set up properly, can out perform an expensive one. 

Again, a modded dl 103 can out perform many more pricier cartridges. Price doesn't guaranty performance.