2. analog
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Intriguing world of Analog

I am an aspiring audiophile and have enjoyed the forum postings on Audiogon over the past few months. I am impressed by the number of people with such advanced knowledge on audiophile subjects and who are willing to share their knowledge with others. I have become intriqued with the seemingly complex world of turntables, tone arms, cartridges and many other itemes related to analog music. I've seen pictures of turntables having numerous tone arms associted therewith and I am curious as to why one would need multiple tone arms. Many years have passed from the day I had a record player and we would tape a penny to the tone arm above the cartridge to keep the record from bouncing off the record. I'm sure the analogophiles reading this post are clutching their chests and gasping for air at the thought of it.

Somehow I feel another obsession coming on.

If I wanted to make an initial foray into the analog world of music what would be a good starting point? Is there a turn-key solution where you purcahse a table, tone arm and cartridge in one fell swoop? I would be willing to spend from $1500-$2,000.

My current sysem is as follows: Classe CA 200 amp, Classe CDP 35 preamp, B&W Matrix 802 series III speakers, and a Yamaha RX Z11 AV receiver. My preamp has a phono location on the source knob.

Will I need a separate phono amp or can I use my Yamaha reciever?

Your help and recommendations would be greatly appreicated.
papajoe

Showing 2 responses by undertow

undertow
1,033 posts
 
The yamaha most likely is only an MM phono input, not MC.. So you can only use MM cartridge, or a High output MC cart. as they like to call them.. Thats anything with 2.5 mV or higher output.. The rest gets a bit complicated as you have many things to answer for yourself...

How much money,
Headache,
Time,
tweaking,
Cleaning,
and Music
are you willing to put up with and find!
Not to mention tools, cleaners, storage etc...
For 1500 you can do a good table and cart, but with all the rest including buying the media itself that you would need to play well your in for a whole other world.
(by the way I love analog and my vinyl, it just takes a lot if you want to go all the way)
undertow
1,033 posts
 
200 is not bad... Should be a pretty good one too, better than the yamaha for sure. It would seem it is just a module with a like computer type quick connect and your preamp was designed for the phono card anyway from the beginning as an option, so should be very simple to install, might have a second wire harness on it to attach to the main power supply or something.
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