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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
larryi
4,578 posts
 

Lewm,

Moerch makes a pivoting arm, the DP 8 model, with very high horizontal mass but low vertical mass for this reason.  At the pivot point it has a shaft perpendicular to the armtube that holds weight on both ends that increase horizontal mass by a significant amount, but because they are centered st the pivot, they don’t add much vertical effective mass.  Moerch describes this as their anisotropic arm.  This arm also delivers a big bass sound.

elliottbnewcombjr
7,744 posts
 

@richardbrand 

IF I was going to make a ’new’ 3 point mount, I would make 1 centered forward hole to fix overhang distance for my fixed arm, and two rear screws 1/2" apart to simply fasten thru the two slots, triangular should be a better mount than 3 down the centerline.

Then, my 3 point cartridges with a pair of 1/2" rear holes could be used in any arm on any TT with slots long enough for the two rear screws (just don’t use the front center hole).

Of course I wouldn’t use 14mm high, that would be ....

Is this fella Roy exceptionally good looking or something? Why so many apostles?

larryi
4,578 posts
 

I find it interesting where a designer goes way outside of what is considered normal, good practices in order to optimize one particular aspect of performance even if some other aspect is supposedly compromised.  Recently, Kuzma introduced an extremely expensive pivoted arm that is made of synthetic sapphire from the headshell to the pivot assembly, the purpose being to maximize rigidity.  The arm has an effective mass of 60 gms which is WAY outside of recommended mass for any modern cartridge.  I have not heard it, but, I've heard many Kuzma pivoted and air bearing arms and I think, based on the sound, that they know what they are doing.  

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richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
1,385 posts
 

@elliottbnewcombjr 

IF I was going to make a ’new’ 3 point mount, I would make 1 centered forward hole to fix overhang distance for my fixed arm, and two rear screws 1/2" apart to simply fasten thru the two slots, triangular should be a better mount than 3 down the centerline

Isn't that exactly what Rega has done?

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