Project makes good stuff, but personally for a first TT, I would go for the cheaper Music Hall (project) MM7 for less money. It’s very decent and you can fool around with it for a couple years and decide whether you want to invest more in analog. Just make sure that before you buy a TT, make sure you have a place to put it. Take a half a glass of water and put it where you intend to put the table. Walk around and see if the water wobbles significantly. If it does, find somewhere else.
Would the new Pro-Ject X8 be a good choice for a first turntable?
If one were to get back into analog after 35 years not owning any albums (last turntable was a Thorens TD320 with cheap cartridge) would the new Pro-Ject X8 with stock arm and cart) be a good first choice? Your opinions. No plans to go balanced in the near future, would run straight RCA cables into Schiit phono stage.
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@chayro , Nice trick! I like that. @2psyop , I just took a look at the table at Project's web site. For $2500 I think the x8 is a lot of table. The best parts are the latter abd the inverted bearing with a magnetic thrust system. It should be within itself very quiet. There are some insufficiencies but you would have to spend a lot more to overcome them. My best advice goes a bit beyond Chayro who is absolutely right. If the water wiggles FORGET it. You want rock solid, as heavy as you can get it and solidly bolted down. To concrete would be nice. It will never be fully isolated but you can get reasonable close. I have a completely suspension isolated turntable. You could put it on a card table and it would function within reason but, it sits an a granite slab 8 feet long on a very heavy cabinet bolted to manufactured flooring sitting on a concrete slab. I can run full speed into my cabinet and the only thing I would accomplish is broken bones. That is what you want to place your turntable on and it's performance will be so good I would be willing to bet you'll never buy another one, just a new cartridge once in a while:-) |
A wall shelf works too. But in any case, you need a vibration-free a place or it’s over. I recommend the MM7 because it’s a very good table at a good price and will give you plenty of analog flavor. Your first Tt is just about testing the waters to see if you want to really jump in and IMO the MM7 checks the boxes for your first. I have to disagree with @russ69 about having to buy an expensive table to surpass CD. My biggest wake-up was bringing home a $700 Music Hall MM5 and a cheap Bellari phono preamp and hearing that it in some ways sounded better than my $10k CD player. Down the road I decided to move up to a Linn and later a Basis, but the Music Hall was a great intro to analog for me. |