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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
elliottbnewcombjr
7,730 posts
 

bill,

I'm not offended, there have been several members lately who want to do this.

Apple and Rega may make terrific products, they are both proprietary greedy, neither one will get a dollar from me. 

I would rather run out of gas than buy Exxon, since the Valdez.

billstevenson
1,183 posts
 

Exxon Corporation had nothing whatever to do with the Valdez tragedy.  The company spent a lot of money in remediation, however.  Your animus is misdirected.  The ship went off course and ran aground due to human error.  Now let's talk about turntables.

necrosuit OP
17 posts
 

@dover 
Thanks for the ant-skate info. I moved it down to 1. Interesting that the highs became more prevalent but it seems to have lost a little warmth / body if that makes sense. I still need to play many more records and play around with adjustments.

@drbond 
I agree on this sentiment so far. Overall I have just not "felt" the high end Rega carts, they dont hit me like others and specifically MM vs MC, I always come back to MM and just like them better on all my tables Ive had.

billstevenson
1,183 posts
 

In the world of high end high fidelity the incidence of greed among manufacturers is manifest.  Rega on the other hand seems to me to stand in stark contrast.  I offer the following arguements:

1.  Founder Roy Gandy signed over 100% of his company to his employees

2.  After spending years developing the ultimate expression of his vision for the perfect turntable as an exercise, which is called Naiad, and of which less than 40 examples were built and sold for $40,000, this model was used to create commercially viable models, P8, P10, and Naia.

3.  Rather than creating faff to drive up the price, wherever possible each of the mentioned models shares parts in common to keep costs down.  Examples include motors and motor controllers.  

I would submit for consideration these points among many as examples that distinguish Rega.  The more I learn the more respect I have for the company and founder Roy Gandy.  

billstevenson
1,183 posts
 

@necrosuit I agree with you about MM cartridges.  One current favorite, AT VMN60xSL is also the least expensive in my collection.  Too often MM are over looked.  For many years I have also liked my 2M Black (now LVB) and for mono my go to has been the 2M Mono SE, unfortunate no longer available.  I like it better than the Cadenza Mono, and a Miyajima Zero that I recently sold, both MC.

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