There is more than one way of shielding from vibration. I favour unsprung TTs, no added springs elsewhere (boing boing) - who says vibrations can't pass through springs?
Hooke?
Every day I see another turntable recommendation...
After digging into this topic, I am convinced now I need to go a bit higher on this first vinyl set up. I think all in, I am prepared at this point to go up to $5k, for the table alone, not including arm or cartridge.
But frankly, being on this forum is like drinking from an information firehose. I have learned a bunch and yet somehow, I am less convicted than before.
With that in mind, to narrow down the decision, I am want to restrict myself to things I can buy, hear and, if necessary, service locally. My local dealers stock, AMG, AVM, Basis, Clearaudio, Michell, Musichall, Pro-ject, Rega, VPI, so I am likely restricted to those brands. I am certain my view will change by the end of this thread.
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Setup is everything with turntables and the Linn is one of the trickiest to get right. In that sense, it’s a bit like the Oracle Delphi. The Linn isn’t my cup of tea, but to dismiss them as "the poorest suspended turntables made" is just silly.
An earthquake isn’t visible, although the result of an earthquake may be. Neither is an earthquake a "wave traveling through the ground" and it is certainly completely false that earthquakes are happening all the time. An earthquake is "is the sudden movement of Earth’s crust at a fault line" which itself is the result of shifting tectonic plates. That is the word from NASA. An earthquake is an event and they are monitored around the world. @mijostyn, your scientific theories are fanciful and imaginative, but they also reveal that much of science isn’t intuitive, at least for you.
I don’t need to hammer my turntable to know that it’s well isolated. |
To do vinyl playback right, you are going to spend some money. Turntable, arm, cartridge (yes, I know there are advocates of relatively inexpensive "giant killers"), phono stage (ditto) and potentially, a rack or other platform on which the table sits. I cannot pretend to have heard all tables, arms or cartridge combinations, but there is usually work involved in getting vinyl right (which also includes cleaning and routine maintenance, as well as optimizing set up, etc.). I don't necessarily want to get into the Linn thing, since in some ways I think it is dated. Maybe the current incarnation, with all the latest upgrades, is still competitive, but at what price? When the state of the art is into the 6 figures, you gotta get a little more critical unless you simply don't care about money. I have a fancy table and another one that was a big time table circa 1973. I currently use both. The hard part here is evaluating before you buy. Lots of variables. I kind of evolved into where I am, and have no great urgency to change. But for the person entering or reentering, it is daunting. There are (or were, subject to "supply chain"), more tables, arms and cartridges than ever. The how to assemble something that sounds good, is enduring and works with the system in its entirety still seems to be voodoo. Folks hint at it by talking "synergy." Or just spending money. It is very hard to sort out the wheat from the chaff. And, I'm not claiming guru status in the quest to do so. Part of it is the sound you like- idler, direct drive, belt drive all sound different. Then, go deeper-how much, from what era and what cartridge? So many variables. No single "right" answer. |
@whart I like yourself have evolved into where I am at present with a LP Repaly Source. I started out as a first attempt to build a dedicated HiFi System with a Belt Drive Linn Deck. Not too long after I went for the Idler Drive Deck and have had these in a few versions, with completely rebuilt Platter Bearing Assemblies, as the main TT's in use for many many years. Today I am using Vintage Japanese Direct Drive TT's, of which the main used model has a Platter Bearing Modification, and is to undergo a complete new design to be put into use. My other DD TT's are all to have a bearing housing with modern materials used to redesign the bearing. My experience is that there can be endless efforts made to improve on a TT, but any of these only really seem to show their true value, when the Platter Bearing is totally optimised to function. Modern materials used in place of the parts selected when the design was produced, offer a very satisfying alternative. Having purpose produced parts made, that are much improved in tolerances, over the generic parts used by the manufacturer, offers a much improved assembly of the bearing housing. Additionally removing sacrificial parts belonging to the bearing assembly, that 'may' have developed a excess wear and 'potentially' been subjected to an non ideal environment to function in for many years is not a bad idea to consider either. My experiences with the Idler drives with rethought out platter bearing designs is indelible, when the benefits of such a practice is recollected. The start of this method used with the DD TT's is producing a very similar experience as well. Hence, why the Kuzma TT's have caught my attention, the Platter Bearing produced for this Brand of TT, even though a different design to ones I have work carried out on, is produced using materials that I tend to consider to be utilised when a bearing is to worked on for me.
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Given your confusion, I would recommend you buy the best Rega with the best rega cart you can afford. This way there are no adjustments and tweaking you have to do and you can relax and listen to records. BTW, your statement that you want to buy something locally that you can see and hear before buying is probably the most intelligent thing I’ve read here in a long time. Problem with most of the Tt’s is that the arms can cost more than the table. I have a Basis and the arm was over 4K years ago. Probably up to 5k by now. |
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