Do I buy an upscale TT?


I recently heard a $50K TT at a friend’s and was floored by the performance.


It was a sound from a system I have never heard.

I have a very nice Woodsong Garrard 301, Tri-Planar arm and Grado Epoch 3 cartridge. Going into an Atma-Sphere MP-1 pre wt phono.

Discovered an affordable TT based on the Legendary Commonwealth idler drive TT (said to be among the best). One is $8500 and the other more elaborate one is $15K.

And there is another highly modified brass Garrard 401 for $10K. (said to be as good as the Commonwealth)

The big question is whether or not I am going to be pleased with the improvement in sound? There will certainly be a lot of hassle to change TTs!

mglik

Showing 3 responses by clearthinker

Whatever Garrard 301 enthusiasts say, one does have to ask whether a 70 year old turntable design is the best sounding thing you can buy.  And I speak as an former Garrard 4HF owner.

Then I did sell that in 1966.

@pindac 

You would of course be welcome to listen to Verismo here but (1) I live in UK so am probably a ways away from you and in my experience (2) there is limited benefit in auditioning cartridges for purchase in unknown systems and (3) yes it is impossible to get a loaner cartridge to put in one's own system.  One way forward might be to take one's present cart and install in the dealer's system to compare with the cart under review.

I have found the match between cartridge mass and arm mass to be at least as critical as resonance matching,  In particular, don't put a light cart in a heavy arm.  A90, A95 and Verismo are all very low mass (Verismo a tad heavier).  They suit my Simon Yorke Aeroarm (very short parallel tracker) extremely well.

I can give you a taste of Verismo vs. A95.  They both have the same Ortofon family sound characteristics.  Very accurate transducers, but perhaps a little light in the heavy patches.  Verismo does a bit better there whilst retaining all the truthfulness.  You say you haven't heard Anna.  This is far heavier both in mass and in its sound character, very very solid and authoritative.  My mistake, it didn't suit the Aeroarm at all, so I run it in my Zarathustra, an SY product from the 1980s, very heavy platter, sprung, with a Zeta arm, also high mass.  It goes very well.  So Verismo is only one 'cutting edge' at Ortofon.  Anna is cutting, but a rather different edge.  They rate it as possibly the best they have done and there is now an uprated version.  If you have a high mass arm you should definitely hear it.

I do also recommend you to try the AT ART1000.  It is a really good piece, state of their art, with more authority and weight than the A90-Verismo line but little if any loss of accuracy, very clean, and a very well-balanced sound stage.  Delicate to handle, it has a unique suspension system.

 

Audio Technica ART1000 is a great cartridge, possibly the best I have.  And I have three high end Ortofons, A95, Anna and Verismo.