Jim, If you're from Thorold ...with time spent in Hamilton..We know each other. email me at [email protected] know someone with a Teres and a Mapleknoll that may want to sell if you wish to go that route... |
Rega P9 if you can forget the VTA stuff. Comes with a great arm that you know is properly installed. Add a good cart, install it on a well levelled wall shelf and forget all the twiddling. Has all the finesse and punch you will ever need. If you want something big and more like a Cadillac, go for a VPI, I guess. |
I want to second the motion made by Natnic. Check out he Well Tempered Tables. I have been familiar with them and followed their evolution ever since Bill Firebough first introduced the arm in the early 80s at Vegas CES and I mounted them on VPIs. I have heard most of the line and have a Reference model with a Grado around the house, as well as my belt-drive Rockport. The Well Tempered needs make no apologies for itself, especially at its price. If you buy a used one, Transparent can ship you new fluids, so ask the seller to drain and clean before shipping. They are great folks to deal with. Good luck! |
I'm spending around $1,800 for TT, cartridge, used Goldmund cones and a used floating suspension. Add to that the Monolithic Sound phonostage ($550) and a set of short IC's ($275) from phono stage to linestage. I am starting to get some killer sound (w/o tonearm rewiring or TT cables), but I've taken a very unorthodox approach to this matter. My rig will need around $6K to be surpassed, if at all. I am using a KAB modded Technics SL-1200MKII w/ a modded Stanton Groovemaster. The deck's sound is accurate and neutral and the cartridge has a sound that is extremely musical, tight and neat, with a midrange that is close to that of $1,500 moving coils... I do use a cryo'ed Absolute Power Cord for the phono stage's outnoard power supply and a Tice PC3 for my TT's outboard power supply, both plugged to a Clear Image T4 quad isolation transformer/filter array and run through a 220V transformer and a medical grade AC regenerator. The quality of your electricity will have a lot to do with final results. |
For $3k you can get a good analog front end- I will allow those who are the analog guru's make suggestions. I will say that the mega-buck analog front ends are fantastic, and feel that you will get a good analog rig for $3k but it will not perform to the level of a high end SME, Rockport, Walker or VPI(TNT-HRX). I don't know of anyone who's system doesn't have some sort of compromise, its part of this hobby. What I am trying to say is don't lose sleep trying to get the performance of SOTA components when you have a budget to consider, its a losing battle unfortunately, listen to what folks here recommend and get the best you can for your money and forget about the really esoteric stuff :) |
