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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
Post removed 
elliottbnewcombjr
7,733 posts
 

 

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/12/23859659/apple-cable-history-iphone-15-usb-c-lightning-mac-thunderbolt

PROPRIETARY

Rega at least sticks with a single long lasting Proprietary Design, Apple is far worse

elliottbnewcombjr
7,733 posts
 

That looks like ’Lucy’s Scream’ in the background.

Everyone should be screaming.

Post removed 
larryi
4,577 posts
 

Every design has to compromise one aspect of performance to excel in others.  There are some designs that minimize most theoretical problems, but, these can be quite expensive, such as the Reed T5 arm that has almost no tracking angle error, no skating force, a long enough arm to reduce VTA/SRA changes from different thicknesses of records, no excessive force required to move the arm horizontally to achieve tangency (unlike air bearing tangential tracking arms), and good resonance control. 

Still, it is ear opening to hear arms such as the Viv Float which sound so good with what is massive theoretical tracking angle error.  They must be doing something very right in other aspects of performance.

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