Turntable help for a Newbie

Teres 255 (used from Teres, $2,675-2,875 depending on finish)
Graham 2.x ($2,000-ish)

The tables on the Teres "Scratch 'n' Dent" sale page are a screaming bargain. Heck, even the new ones are a bargain, and there's no more "set and forget" TT in the world than a Teres. I haven't adjusted anything on my 265 in months, because there's literally nothing to adjust.

The Graham is by far the easiest of the top arms to set up and adjust, and it's suitable for a broad array of good, medium compliance cartridges.

That leaves just under $500 for a cartridge. The best choice will depend on the gain in your phono stage and your tastes in sound and music.

Mang53,
Here's another idea. You put $5K aside for my bail money and I'll 'borrow' Rushton's rig. You can come listen any time!

<;~)

Hi Txp1,
Thanks for the kind words.

I've never heard a Sota. I've never heard anything but good about them either. I'll confess we fell for the eye candy appeal of the Teres 265, but we're quite satisfied musically too.

We recently upgraded from our Twl-modded OL Silver to a TriPlanar. That was a huge step, price-wise and performance-wise. The OL's are excellent arms and stupendous value for the money. Twl was and is our fearless leader of course. His HIFI Mod thread was the most brilliant and influential analog discussion I've ever seen. The little $900 Silver, when so modded, actually outperforms four of the most expensive pivoting arms in the world for leading edge transient response. IOW, these arms rock, and Twl reported the Encounter did about the same when he A/B'd one against his modded Silver, and the Encounter was clearer/cleaner. Nice move you made.

Terry,
Almost everyone loves their Teres but of course there are exceptions. One guy here preferred the sound of his Michell for example. There's no perfect component, but Teres does seem to offer exceptional performance for the price.

There's some discussion of arms on my system thread. Check it out and add any questions you want.

Paul and I have heard our Shelter 901 mounted on:
- our Twl-modded Silver
- Cello's Graham 2.2
- Chris Brady's Schroeder Reference
- Cello's Basis Vector (actually Cello's 901 on this one)
- our Tri-Planar (broken in B4 we received it, dealer demo)
Hearing the same cart on five different arms gives us a reasonably good feel for each one.

Doug

Terry,

No trouble at all. The tales you remember are from the original D-I-Y days, when men were men and Teres TT's were being designed and built virtually from scratch. Joe is capable of doing that. I'm not.

Like any model 2xx or 3xx Teres, my 265 arrived ready-to-assemble. Any concientious twelve year old could do it, honestly. The only tools I had to provide:
- adjustable wrench
- bubble level
- pencil
- 1" of scotch tape
- syringe (optional)
- patience

The syringe is for filling the bearing with oil (provided) without smearing any on the sides of the shaft (important). The patience is to wait 4-8 hours for the bearing to settle. Spinning the platter before that could score the bearing surfaces. Except for this waiting period, the entire assembly takes maybe 20-30 minutes. Aligning a cartridge is more difficult. The complete instructions are on the website if you want to review them.

Obviously if you chose one of the unfinished 1xx models there would be some light sanding, finishing or painting. But that's strictly at your option.

Doug