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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
faustuss's avatar
faustuss
820 posts
 

@elliottbnewcombjr 

"Your arm height is fixed, and your cartridge body height is designed specifically for that arm, so you do not need to set arm height/vta/sra, that is very nice.

You need to ascertain 3 measurements for any tonearm:

a. overhang

b. inner null point distance

c. outer null point distance

Can anybody give us those answers for OP’s Rega Planar 8  ______?"

Rega doesn’t go into that simply because they assume you’re going to use a Rega cartridge which are all standard with a three-point mounting system. The supplied protractor has only one alignment grid on it when used with a nonstandard cartridge that provides a modified Stevenson geometry tweaked to Regas specification. Your null points would be approximate if based on the Stevenson alignment. I believe its well known that Rega publishes a pivot to stylus distance of 222 millimeters. I’m pretty sure all Rega cartridges weight 6 grams and the arm is considered medium mass at 11 grams.

elliottbnewcombjr
7,741 posts
 

mostly locking you into their cartridges is nasty IMO.

Printing manuals in light gray on white is nasty.

Not giving specs is nasty.

No height adjustment is beyond nasty.

Hats off to Ortofon for making their R versions to fit Rega’s 14mm height.

 

It would be nice to know what the RB880 arm’s null point distances are, for people who do not have the protractor

overhang is 14.5 mm

inner null point _______ mm?

outer null point _______ mm?

///////////////////////////////////

P-Mount Staandards didn’t catch on, a shame the industry couldn’t agree on some part of cartridges, say make them all 16mm high, cantilever angle the same: thus VTA/SRA automatically right, then make most arms with fixed height (always need a few arms with adjustments for perfectionists)

ALL arm fittings could have adjustment for azimuth like Micro-Seiki 505’s. 

We can use our protractors for any arm if we know overhang/inner null/outer null

jimmyblues1959
231 posts
 

IMHO,  you have an excellent audio system that is being  held back by your phono pre amplifier. Before you get rid of the P8 (a wonderful TT by most accounts), I’d get a phono preamp that is on par with the rest of your audio gear. 

The most important aspect of any audio system is that the gear be well balanced so that there’s a synergy. One component that is not equal to the others compromises them.  

Best of luck in fine tuning your system and enjoy the music!! 👍

 

elliottbnewcombjr
7,741 posts
 

@jimmyblues1959 

You are right, I guess you missed that OP told us:

"Gentlemen,

You have all provided such awesome detailed feedback and I truly appreciate it all! 

With that said I just purchased the Manley Chinook Special Edition MkII Phono Preamp and the Ortofon 2MR Black LVB 250 cartridge. This will be my new path while I test and tune for a while. These purchases are a direct result of all your help and guidance. Thank you all! I have my Alpheta 2 MC Cart as well to compare differences.  I’ve always been a tube fan and tube rolling and this will allow a little of all worlds.  Thank you  "

jimmyblues1959
231 posts
 

@elliottbnewcombjr   Thanks for the update! Yes,  I did miss the follow up by the OP, but I'm glad that he found a nice upgrade for his phono preamp; which IMHO will now allow him to keep the rest of his audio system as is. 😊

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