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Honest question about cartridge vs. turntable performance.

I’ve been a vinyl lover for a few years now and I have an ortofon black cartridge setup with an mmf 5.1 turntable with acrylic platter and speed controller. My question to all the vinyl audiophiles out there is this. How much difference does a turntable really make compared to the cartridge? Will I hear a significant difference if I upgraded my turntable and kept the same cartridge? Isn’t the cartridge 90%+ of the sound from a vinyl setup? Thank you guys in advance for an honest discussion on this topic. 
tubelvr1
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,754 posts
 
Competence in bearings and isolation is easy compared to changing one kind of energy into another....don’t shortchange the cartridge, and buy a rebuildable cartridge and it will be worth more than zero... Captain Kirk flunked math....
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,754 posts
 
Rega is a good choice but there are others see Brinkmann, Kuzma, AMG, etc for integrated packages, including tailored HRS isolation bases.
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,754 posts
 
Funny when ole James Kirk can’t remember his own advice - look into Soundsmith.....
petg60
1,486 posts
 
Hi,
the better table will always give a more enjoyable sound, a beter cartridge will have a more refined sound of table's limitations.
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
The turntable can make a large difference. I just upgraded from my old Rega Planar 2 to a Technics SL1210GR. I’ve kept the same cartridge and everything else is the same also. So much less surface noise and overall cleaner sound.

Right, because Rega is an awful overpriced belt-drive turntable.

Your GR has a coreless Direct Drive motor, heavy cabinet, excellent and fully adjustable tonearm with detachable headshell and all this just for $1700.

How you can upgrade your cartridge on Technics and the difference will be huge compared to the difference you have noticed between belt drive TT and proper DD.

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