Your turntable history

@dwette - best of luck with the Boulder amps. I've a lot of experience with Naim gear. It's always had a very "distinctive" sonic character. But that's a whole other topic...

@yoyoyaya I've had Naim gear since I started with CB 42.5/HC/140 in the mid 80s. :)

In the early 1960's, a New Garrard 301 was £17.00; currently, the new Garrard 301 is sold at £32000

@oberoniaomnia 

Thanks for the summary of your experiences.  I have not been tempted to leave Rega, it has never let me down and works beautifully.  The VTA on the fly does sound cool and maybe for some cartridges it does matter more??  I did get the 2-piece shims for Rega as I have used taller wood body cartridges but could not tell a difference on that adjustment.  I did not install them on my P10.  I had the exact same frustration with that felt mat and really don't get why they stick with those.  You know it has to be the same for everyone.  I got a Herbies mat and it has worked great...the black/white design also matches the Rega black/white.  I used to have a lot of isolation issues with my turntables and one of the ultimate solutions was resting my last 3 Rega models on sorbothane pucks.  I used different densities to also end up helping level.  Enjoy the Naia!  It is reassuring that you have the best and that will most likely be the best for several years to come.  

@dhite71 Interesting re the shims. I was also thinking about them, but hearing your experience puts that rather on the back burner. Re whether VTA *may* matter for some carts, sure, why not? For the carts I have had so far, I could not tell a difference. I hear major differences with VTF, though. I have not done any further fiddling with the Aphelion II VTF. It sounded great out of the box, so why fix what ain't broke.

At some point I also tried those test records with obstacle course. Again, very little difference if any. I tend not to listen to test-records, prefer actual music, so am ignoring test records as well. I think Steve Guttenberg is correct in saying that a great system makes an average record shine.