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Turntable advice / opinion on setup / sound.

Hello all you analog experts. I am seeking some advice, opinions and direction to try, based on my tastes and setup. 

I’m not loving my current TT sound but there are variables that could cause this. For reference, my favorite TT I ever owned was the ClearAudio Champion Level 2 (wish I never sold it) because it was warm and had a huge stage. 

  1. I listen to every style of music, smooth jazz to hard metal. 
  2. I have to turn the volume way up to get the get the level I like which at times has hiss and a tiny bit of hum. Compared to digital sources which have none of these issues. 
  3. I find this setup to lack huge stage and warmth. 

My current system is:

  1. Rega Planar 8 w/ Alpheta 2 MC cart.  
  2. Cambridge Audio -> Alva Duo Phono Pre amp
  3. Mark Levinson -> No 585 Amp. 
  4. Martin Logan 15a Renaissance -> 8FT apart/ 3ft off the front wall and 3 FT from each side wall. I sit 9FT away from the speakers.  

The turntables I am considering are:

1) Musical Fidelity -> M8XTT

What cart would you use?

2) Michell Audio -> Gyro SE Turntable

3) Clear Audio Champion Level 2

Thank you all in advance for any guidance and opinions you can offer. 

necrosuit
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
7,830 posts
 

In $1,000-$2,000 range….

I am using Whest Two.2 - neutral, transparent, very quiet, very dynamic. Excellent focus, precision and great soundstage. Should strike a really nice balance with the Martin Logans  

https://www.whestaudio.co.uk/products/whesttwo-2-ex-demo

McIntosh MP100 - around $2500 new now I think? Excellent phono stage, sweeter sounding than the Whest, slightly higher noise floor but difference is negligible especially with speakers like the ML you won’t notice the noise, they’re not super efficient. Get this if you want a less analytical and more textured sound  

Sutherland 20/20 Mk2 - somewhere between Whest and McIntosh noise and sonics wise - neutral but slightly more delicate than the Whest  

 

 

 

knock1
360 posts
 

"I’m not an expert, but perhaps a more powerful amp would be a better idea? Looks like your speakers are more happy with some 700 wpc amps, and your amp is around 250 wpc?"

One of the most inane advice that ever appeared on AG.

As most sugested, the phono stage is the bottleneck.

elliottbnewcombjr
7,701 posts
 

https://tmraudio.com/fresh-arrivals/aesthetix-rhea-mm-mc-tube-phono-preamplifier/

I really like the features

other members, in a recent thread: some Yay, some: it can be noisy.

TMR has 30 day return;

IF defect, you pay only return shipping. I would get in writing, if it's noisy, it's coming back, no restocking fee

No Defect: you pay return shipping AND 5% restocking fee.

90 day guarranty

jperry
2,535 posts
 

I owned an Aesthetix Rhea. If you use the higher gain settings it's noisy. If a little hiss doesn't bother you that is fine, but it will hiss at higher gain settings.

Additionally if you have a bad tube, there are a lot (10) to sort through in order to find the bad tube.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
7,830 posts
 

I was looking at that one @elliottbnewcombjr 

man 10 tubes…that’s gonna suck for troubleshooting and will cost a ton to re-tube. Tubes are what, about $70-$80 a pop nowadays?

Stereophile review…

While there was a bit of tube rush between records through the very-high-gain VTL 7.5 line stage, noise was never audible when music was playing, and there was no more than a normally low amount of tube-related noise through the Balanced Audio Technology VK-51SE or Aesthetix Calypso line stages.
 

reading that between the lines tells me this thing is noisy

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