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Got A Turntable...What Next?

I inherited my deceased dad's vintage TT , speakers and
large classical vinyl collection. He died in 92 and the stuff was still in his basement in perfect condition just
like he left it.I am now taking care of my 87 year old
mom with Alzheimers and decided to get his rig back up and running. I brought over an old receiver with a phono stage
and a friend lent me an AT cart just to see how things sounded. Now its three months later and the system has grown with used gear as shown below.

Thorens TD-125 w/SME 3009 II
Shelter 501 mk2
PS Audio GCPH
Decware SE 341.2 (6 watt) tube w/ NOS Amperex Holland
Altec Lansing "Laguna"
http://www.vintage-audio.com.ua/en/cat/68/1469.html

I am really enjoying the vinyl experience again, have a cleaning machine and i am doing it the right way.

My questions are:
I want to upgrade to a better sounding system.....should i keep any of my present gear? I feel the speakers are the weak link, they have a wonderful mid-range but lack a little in high end and bass.
Any opinions? My budget is 8-10k. Used gear is fine.
I listen to mostly classic rock, blues and some classical.
128x128edtyre
restock
831 posts
 
I doubt the Laguna are the weak part of the system. A friend's Altec A7's are IMO still one of the best speakers I heard to date and that includes many modern hornspeakers, such as the Avantgarde and others.

You may want to look into modifying and rewiring the crossovers of the Altecs. Otherwise the amp may not be an ideal match, try some different SET amps if you can.

Finally the SME arm is a little lightweight for the low compliance Shelter cartridge and not an ideal match which will show in the bass most. The Shelter is a nice cartridge and the SME arm is nice too, but the match is far from ideal with respect to arm- cartridge resonance. I would consider a different cartridge for the SME arm.
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rauliruegas
13,111 posts
 
Dear Edtyre: Other that what already posted I think that you could improve the quality performance on your system through a better Phonolinepreamplifier that is the audio item/link that handle the delicate cartridge signal and where that critical signal " suffer " a heavy process where that signal can be highly degraded .

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
plato
1,543 posts
 
Raul, that PS Audio GCPH is an excellent sounding unit so I don't think that's the problem. But Restock's point about a possible arm/cartridge mismatch may be valid.

I owned the Shelter 501 at one time and it did not sound that optimal in my Wilson Benesch Act 0.5 arm. I like the Benz cartridges much better. Perhaps a new Glider or Gullwing Benz would work better. But the GCPH will be noisy with low-output MC cartridges under about 0.4mV, so keep that in mind as well.
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rauliruegas
13,111 posts
 
Dear Plato: I'm not saying that the PS Audio is not a good unit I'm only saying that he can get a better quality performance with a better phono stage unit and I already posted that " other what already posted "....

The 502 deserve that and through those Altec he can enjoy it, other advantage is that a better phonolinepreamp can/could give him the alternative that in the future he could change its cartridge for one of the " stellar " ones with out change in the Phonolinepreamp but where he can from today enjoy that quality sound performance, well at least this is my advise.

Rgeards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
add if you wish to, but don't sell anything.
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