Substantial Upgrade


Longtime lurker, first-time poster:  My wife and I got into vinyl about five years ago and have been steadily collecting records ever since.  We love spinning records, and listen to a lot of jazz, pop, and classical music.  We started modestly with an AT LP120, and are lucky to have a friend who just happened to have a pair of Totem Rainmakers sitting in his garage collecting dust, which he gave to us, along with a TSC sub and all cables.  We have decided it is time to invest in our own system.

I've done a lot of research and read numerous threads on this topic here and elsewhere, and we've narrowed our choices down to two tables: the Rega P6 (in the $1500 price range) or the Feickert Volare (in the $3500 bracket).  Either table I'll be getting the Hana ML.  For phonostage, we've narrowed down to the MoFi UltraPhono or the Sutherland KC Vibe mk ii.  I'm hoping I can solicit opinions here on these choices and, in particular, whether the Feickert is going to make a difference for our use case.  Finally, I recognize that the speakers might be outclassed by these upgrades, but we are separately planning to move in the next year and I want to wait and see where our new listening room is going to be before investing in new speakers.    

Thanks in advance. 
bruinuclafan
"Anyway, had your chance. Bye!"

Hi again MC
No doubt OP is pleased you have signed out.
You really are not a very nice person. 


From experience — in your listening room, do you have wood suspension floors under a concrete foundation like most colonials or high ranches in the US? If so and you choose the Rega, make sure you also buy the shelf for it — footfall is a nasty attribute in these types of homes and the Rega can’t always handle it resulting in vibration, skipped records, etc.

As for the phonostage, you can’t go wrong with a Sutherland (it’s all he does after founding and leaving Martin Logan a long time ago). I also had the KC Vibe, then the 20/20 LPS and the thing about his design is that it’s dead quiet, he focuses on the power supply and really just well made with high end components. There’s really nothing negative ever said about it - it just does everything well. And the new version of the Vibe is supposed to be even better and at less than $1,000 it’s got to be considered right there at the top or near top of its price point.
@bruinuclafan, the reason that I went with Jelco TK850 arm on my Dr. Feickert Volare table is that it can be order with an add-on with the VTA at the time. I also ordered my TT from Upscale Audio and Kat helped me set up the cartridge before it was shipped to me. All I did for the setup was leveling the TT and adjust the counter weight to set the vertical traction force. The TT is very stable and I didn't have to make any adjustment since the original setup, although I do check periodically. I didn't experience the problems that were described in the links, maybe the opposite. From my email communicated with Chris Feickert, the motor in the Volare table was a bit 'over designed' to provide speed stability and accuracy.  

But I agreed with jperry's comment two posts above that you should check with Kat to see if you can order the OL arm with an add-on VTA.  
Sounds like you may need to do a little more research and auditioning. No need to hurry as hearing improvement in stages is really fun.

Someone else mentioned this...but I will repeat.
Put a VM740ml cartridge on your current TT first. I had this cart on my Technics 1200G. It will give you a really good improvement right off the bat.

Then upgrade to a stellar Phono stage. Something that you can grow with...go big here.

Then try a new TT. You will notice the improvement but it will not be as vast as you think and you will be able to quantify the level of each improvement.

As for turntables, the Technics 1200GR is my recommendation. Made in Japan and built to outlast most premium TTs out there. 


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