Reliable dealers, of course. I could tentatively recommend something but it could take a long time to find it used, something like SME that jperry recommended. You certainly want tube phono stage and very good cable and power cord. At this level I go for British tables, not Rega. |
There is used Nottingham Space Deck with Space arm on ebay from a dealer for $1500. That's what I have. Take a look. |
Sorry, man, $5k is not enough for what you want to achieve. A little more, shall we? |
Jperry mentioned SME, Terry9 and I mentioned Nottingham. I have not heard Avid - it's British, right? - and Origin Live, only read something about them.
Yes, table/arm/cartridge in order of importance. Phono stage is really important as well. The least expensive MC cartridge I would think of is Dynavector 20H, that's $1k new. Personally, and I know some others will disagree, the least expensive MCs I would consider are top of the line Goldring and Lyra Delos, both are much more expensive. I value drive, pace, coherence, balance, weight and overall musicality more than highest resolution, speed and extreme frequences reproduction. So at this level I myself stay with MM cartridges.
I read about the mentioned Allnic phono stage but not heard it. You could have new for about $2600 or used for $2000 or less. If you want to consider new you could talk to the member albertporter. He sells Allnic and some other good stuff and he is nice to talk to. He is also a true audiophile, I know, I talked to him privately and here on Audiogon. Some say that Allnic is a little soft for some systems. |
So..$1.5k for Spacedeck/Spacearm and $2k for the Allnic phono. That leaves $1.5k for cartridge, interconnect from phono to amp and power cord for the phono. Pretty good. You don't need tonearm cable for the Spacearm, the wire goes from the cartridge to RCA connectors. That's just one possibility.
jmcgrogan2, could you describe the sound of the Allnic? Do you still use VAC Sigma amp? |
Yup. Choosing table is hard. |
I use Acoustech PH-1 with MM cartridge. Excellent phono. Designed by Ron Sutherland. Hard to find used and it is no longer made. Sutherland 20/20 should be at least as good, I have not heard it. But that's transistor phono, you can hear it. Go with the tube one. Allnic should be very good. We Nottingham fans pay no attention to VPI. Sorry. |
In addition, in some way, in my opinion, one has to match the cartidge with the table and speakers’ character. As an example, Nottingham table is on the warm side of neutral and so are my speakers, only more. I did not want to put either too warm or somewhat cold sounding cartridge, this would’ve been wrong. That’s how, among other considerations, I came up with Goldring 1042 MM.
If you go with VPI, I heard that one of the best combinations with them is Soundsmith MM. I would not go below Carmen model, it’s currently $1k, I think. Those cartridges are said to be quite sensitive to VTA, however. Whether you take it as good, bad or both is another matter. |
Carmen cartridge is $800 from musicdirect.com
I was hesitating when I was choosing a cartidge for myself and narrowed it down to that Goldring and Carmen, which also works fine in Nottingham arm. It was $600 then. Decided on Goldring but not because of price difference. |
I just wanted to mention the cable from phono to amp. It is very important. |
Oops, sorry, it's $1308 plus shipping. I don't know how it would work in VPI arm, it would fine in Nottingham. Medium weight, 0.6mv output. $800 Carmen or $1308 Lyra Delos? Lyra no doubt if your phono can handle it. I would stay away from any AT or Ortofon, they can be bright in some systems. |
Right. As most agree, the first cable in the chain is most important. In my case it goes from cartridge to the phono so I didn't have to think about it. Nottingham arm cable is known to be very good, some people do rewire the arm. I probably would too with Purist Audio cable since that's the brand that I use, but it would cost a lot, I would have to find someone whom I could trust, and I might upgrade the arm in a few years. But the table itself will stay with me for a very long time. |
Oh, and I steer clear of less expensive Grado, not familiar with their Reference level, they are foggy and not balanced enough.
I really like Grado headphones, though, very engaging. |
Sorry, I didn't catch that they can't ship overseas. The way around it is that you have friends or relatives in the UK. Or if you were going to visit the UK soon. You could try, theoretically speaking, some hi-end places in Japan. But.. |
I just took a look at analogueseduction.net in the UK, that's where I bought my cartridge, to see what they've got. It's unbelievable, Lyra Delos is $1250 plus shipping, here in the US it's $1999 unless you somehow get a discount. Oh boy, and it's not even European cartridge. |
Anyone knows anything about The Cartridge Man cartridges? Reviews are quite impressive.
Anyway, VPI Prime or Nottingham Spacedeck you'll get an excellent table. The phono stage.. most people who use tube amps use tube phono as well, there are also some who use tube phono with solid state amps. Sutherland or Allnic, as an example? How can one know for sure without comparing in the same system? Or maybe not better or worse, just different. |
Now, this is a quite good cartridge, and if it's A-stock the price is excellent. It is quite heavy, you should talk to VPI people about compatibility with the arm. And as I said, Ortofon can be bright, especially with solid state phono. You could talk to Ron Sutherland too. But it's a little overkill for your table/arm in terms of resolution, anyway.
So, I don't know.. |
Yeah, buying to try a new expensive cartridge is not a good idea at all. I still think you might want to focus more on the phono stage. I would almost certainly get new Allnic phono for about $2600 instead of, say, $2000 used. I am not sure the warranty is transferrable, and Allnic guarantees even tubes for one year. You have a tube amp, like the sound, and I would see no good reason to break the tube sound chain, especially in the beginning of it. I myself would probably replace the Acoustech with the Allnic if I could if someone convinced me that I would not lose any dynamics and pace and bass. This I would not tolerate. But each is different. Cartridge and speakers choice is known to be the most personal. |
This is the quote from Whest Audio website. The first introductory phrase. "
Welcome to the Whest Audio website. Here is the place of the very best phono stages in the world."
I'll refrain from expessing my opinion of this in a more open fashion than I just did.
Why did you decide to go with solid state phono, anyway? You are going to thin out the sound and lose some details. |
