Direct Drive

I still have a couple of phono stages in my bag of tricks but just thought I might make it easy.  What do you make of the Ortofon Red Cartridge?

@dover 

You probably didn’t mean it that way, but that sounds like an endorsement to me

My system:  

Amplification—Cary SLP-3 Pre, Parasound JC Curl Amp

DAC- Bryston DAC-3

Oppo 105 

Melco N 100, Cambridge CXN 60 NAS/Streamers

B&W 803 D speakers, REL Sub, Mini DSP R/P

All Cabling Nordstrom Valhalla

My Clearaudio Concept had a Concept MC Cartridge and the standard Satisfy Arm.  Phono pre amps by Musical Surroundings (battery) and PS Audio.  The former was chosen when I couldn’t extinguish a hum in the latter.

 THE Clearaudio sounded neat,tidy, orderly with bloated bass, and generally dull.  It was also one heck of a dust magnet.  The Rega moved me more but the pitch instability drove me nuts.  I had Wilhelm Kempff playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata where the famous triplets in the First Movement were distorted  to point that I had thought someone slipped acid in my coffee.

  I love my digital set up.  However I always lusted after a Technics Direct Drive.I won’t get the DJ table but I might get 1500 .  I am put off getting a used one due to potential motor noise.  This is kind of a bucket list thing.  Retirement looms and then I won’t be able to spend my shekels on whims like this without feeling overly guilty.

@yoyoyaya

I have no vinyl at present. There are about a dozen Lps that I am eyeing because they are not available digitally. Are you viewing the 1500 as entry level? And given that analog will always be a secondary source, I don’t really wants to spend into the stratosphere

@yoyoyaya 

I agree with everything that you say.  I prefer digital, and have many posts on the site detailing why, but I have deliberately refrained from recycling these comments here in the analog section asI have no wish to reignite that topic, although to some extent it is inevitable.

  I do think that it’s possible—perhaps not probable- that a DD may eliminate a few of the issues that I have had with other tables, notably speed stability and bloated, diffuse bass.

   I am looking at older DD tables, but some of the prices they command are getting close to the price of a new Technics.  I am concerned about motor noise and the reviews of the newer Technics seem to indicate that the newer tables have vanquished that issue.

  I also would like to get some use out of a couple of decent phono preamps that are sitting in my house.  I tried selling them a few years ago but there wasn’t much demand, and one buyer tried to Scam me.  The whole experience was so unpleasant that it put me off selling gear for the present (to be fair, when I sold the Clearaudio I made enough to buy my Melco and CA streamers, but the demand for pre amps doesn’t seem to be the same as the demand for turn tables).

  And finally, I just freaking want one.  I really wanted to buy a Technics back in the day, couldn’t do it, then when I reacquired an interest in vinyl they had disappeared.

When they were resurrected I wasn’t interested and wouldn’t have shelled out $18K anyway.  Now they are priced more realistically and I am getting the new gear bug.  Any move I make in digital at this price point will at best be a lateral, at worse be a downward move.

  It’s like owning a classic car that you might just take for a spin once a month.  Perhaps you have many other vehicles that can transport you more efficiently and more economically .  You just want the classic car for myriad other reasons that have nothing to do with getting from point A to point B.

So I just bought the 1500 from Music Direct. I live in Chicago so I will pick it up probably next weekend, as I will take advantage of proximity to avoid the potential ravages of the shipping company and the rapacious Porch Pirates. This will give me a chance to acquire a few more lps as well. I upgraded the cartridge to Ortofon 2M Blue on the basis of suggestions here.

The phono preamp will probably be superfluous but I haven’t used  my two preamps for several years and although they seem to fire up when plugged in, I just prefer the security of knowing that I can actually play a record the day I set it up and don’t have delayed gratification issues.

This has really been educational. I learned a lot and there are some interesting and knowledgeable posters here that I don’t tend to see in the other Forums on Agon that I frequent. I will post back in a few weeks with impressions.

  I had the TTU.  $400 wasted.  I used it from day one.  It broke I took it back to the dealer and they couldnt fix it even though it was under warranty.  It sounded the same with and without.

@best-groove 

read further down the thread

@sokogear

With all due respect, been there, done that, about a decade ago. Details a bit fuzzy

now. There was a (red?) status light that would go on with every use,  stopped going on. I took it out of the system. As previously mentioned, this didn’t change the speed instability issues one iota, which led me to conclude the whole product was either a hoax or else that it was broken from day one. I took it to the dealer (Holm Audio, Woodridge Illinois). Over the succeeding weeks they told me they had multiple calls with Rega. Keep in mind that it was still under warranty. Rega refused to accept the item back, basically claiming that it was impossible that it could be defective. I filed a complaint with the Consumer Protection Agency and the Better Business Bureau.

They then took it back, returned it to me 6 months later (and multiple calls) unchanged. Status light still didn’t work, table sounded no different with it plugged in, but guess what...it was no longer under warranty! Rega offered to sell me a new one at a $25 dollar discount as their "final offer" settlement. I declined their generosity.

  It also made me wonder..how bad is the speed stability, and the feedback that they must get about it from consumers, if they had to invent an entirely new product to correct a flaw which shouldn't have been there in the first place?

I enjoyed the Rega P5, which I owned for about 5 years, on discs when the speed instability issues weren’t so prominent. Although the Moonlight Sonata sounded terrible, as noted, some other works such as the Second Bartok Piano Concerto really snapped into focus for me. There was real energy in the music that even the excellent digital transfer just didn’t quite capture and it increased my appreciation of the piece. However I listen to a lot of Piano Music, such as Chopin, Debussy, Satite, Beethoven, Mozart, and as someone noted upthread Piano Music is a severe test for turntables. Ultimately I didn’t want a tt that excelled on some records, was terrible on others and somewhere in between on most. The Clearaudio didn’t suffer speed instability but it also never made me say "Wow, I have to hear that piece again right now!" either, which the Rega did frequently

Received the table but unfortunately I had thought the Seller was going to do more set up.  I was able to mount the cartridge but I can’t get the tone arm weight right.  I have followed the procedure in the manual several times.  First I adjusted the weight at the end of the tonearm so the arm looks horizontal.  I then dialed in both the stylus weight and antiskate at 1.8, which is what Ortofon recommended.  Still, the arm goes up at a 45 degree angle when released from its restraint.  After repeating this a few times I quit.  Today is Sunday so I will call the seller tomorrow but they haven’t been to CS Friendly so far.  They are located in a really non descript area and I was greeted at the door by a manager holing on to a huge, snarling Doberman .

OK the Technics 1500 is working and I’ve bought a few records. Unfortunately I am having a problem with the phono preamps that I had in storage as they both don’t seem to be working. I knew one was problematic but was disappointed that the other isn’t producing any sound, as it was fine when last used but hey, it’s been in storage for 6 years. The tt has a built in phono preamp-glad I opted for that— so that is what has been used. I also picked up a used Project usb preamp for about $30, as I am intending to digitalize some lps, and it does work but predictably sounds like you know what when just used as a preamp alone, but at least the fact that it works let’s me know that there isn’t a problem with the output of the tt itself.

So using the included pre amp I am impressed with the speed stability of the table. Also these used recordings sound dead quiet. However the volume is meh. I have to push my Cary SLP-3 preamp to its limit to get a volume that is about 80% of my normal listening level.

  So I want a new phono preamp but I have kind of hit the budget at the moment.  I am thinking of something in the 200-$300 range hoping that I can at least get to a normal listening level.  Yes, I have read the threads here that suggest the phono should cost as much as the tt, but reality is intruding.  I don’t see this as ever being more than a secondary source for me anyway.  I am going to ask a bricks and mortar store if they will let me home demo something in that range

Parks Puffin goes for just a bit more new and does have a volume control but I’d like to audition it first.  The Cambridge Audio phono amp is also on my list