What Turnatable now?


I everyone :-), Ever since I started listening to vinyl again (2012), It has been quite an enjoyable (at times frustrating) experience. So real quick here are the tables in order...REGA P3/24 stock RB301 arm with DenonDL110, Nagaoka MP200, DenonDL102, Dyanavector 10X5. The Dynavector was the best on this table bar far, imo. Thornes TD160 stock TP16 arm with Grado Sonota Reference , excellent combo. Then I was gifted (whole new level) a Project Xtension 10 stock 10" arm with Clearaudio Maestro V2. Dynavector 20x2L. The Maestro was very nice but I prefer the Dynaudio for its ability to sound more lively and dynamics seem more powerful. The Maestro is however a beautiful sounding cartridge very detailed. Overall though no matter what I did the Project was always a little too warm for MY already warmer than neutral sounding system. Now I have a J.A. Michell Gyro SE and Techno arm (newest version) with Dynavector 20x2L. I love this table! I love the way it sounds! Lively and exciting and everything to me just sounds "right", from rock to jazz reggae, blues. I have used many phono pre amps from Project, musical surroundings, then I bought a Manley Labs Chinook :-)

So a family member who has the same Project Xtension with the Maestro V2 MM (loves It) wants me to find him a table in the 3K to 4K range that he could use as well for edgier music like Hard rock, Classic Rock, Heavy rock, Punk...whatever. This he would like to try a LOMC :-) Also, last but not least I need a great sounding Phono Pre for 2k or less that can handle LOMC cartridges. The real kick is that I might end up with this table (thats why I included the above info about me) I would like something completly different....any suggestions?
128x128mattmiller

Showing 1 response by joey54

You may want to try the Clearaudio Concept Wood with the Satisfy tonearm and the Hana SL mc cartridge. It’s a great combination and plays all kinds of music well. If your budget of $3-4K is for the table alone, I would look at the Clearaudio Performance DC turntable which is Clearaudio’s next step up.

For the phono stage you might want to look at the Musical Surroundings Nova II. It comes in at $1200 and has the most flexible settings for MC cartridges I have ever seen. It also gives you the choice of running on batteries if you want to.

Good Luck!