I want to move from Rega Planar 6 help me to pick a new turntable

If you are really concerned about azimuth, take a look at the Well-Tempered Labs Simplex turntable. It has a on the fly collar azimuth adjustment that has to be seen in operation to believe.

I had a Rega 6 and went to a Well-Tempered. A very nice sonic improvement overall. 

I have owned several of the turntables on your list including the the Music Hall. If you do not like the Pro-Ject I suspect you might not like the music hall either, i.e. they are very similar. In fact I had a double plinth 5.1 that used the project tone arm, was a good table but similar to the rega 6 and project carbon.

Of the ones listed I prefer the VPI prime in style and function.

That said, I currently have a vintage Thorens table, which took the place of my more modern units. As indicated above, vintage Thorens units such as the TD124 are amazing. While a fully restored td124 might be over budget you can easily pick one up for under 2K in great shape and easy to restore.

you are going in te wrong direction you need a better phono stage and an isolation

base

the p6 is an awesome table and you will find yourself less drawn into the music with many of the tables mentioned.

lack of vta and azimuth are only really important with expensive cartridges.with exotic stylus profiles.

so, unless you are going with a top-of-the-line cart you shouldnt be concerned about vta and azimuth.

Dave and Troy

audio intellect nj.

Rega dealers

@audiotroy 

I would disagree that azimuth is only important on expensive cartridges.

Once I had to put back my DL-103 (on the ART9XA one channel broke after about 10 hours, and on previous Quintet Black cantilever broke)  I finally decided to set up azimuth.

I checked the DL-103 and the stylus was at a small degree to the surface. In fact I checked my all previous cartridges and all had stylus at an angle. 

So I put a shim under one side of DL-103. As usual I set up my cartridge with oscilloscope. But this time I actually adjusted the azimuth to minimize cross-talk on the worst channel.

After that, not only channel balance improved, but also tracking ability. While when I had this cartridge before it could not track past 70um on my Ortofon Test LP. This time after azimuth adjustment it only ever slightly distorts when tracking 100um.

It is a mechanical system, which means all moving parts are important. If stylus is not perpendicular to the surface, one side will have more wear than the other and also it might increase record wear.

Cartridges are not ideal, but it does not mean that we can't make them perform their best, even if they are not expensive one. For the same reason I don't align the cartridge sides, but rather cantilever, because it may be at an angle to the cartridge body.

I plan to get more expensive one, but now I realized that I want to have an ability to make an optimal setup. Of course I can use shim as in DL-103, but it does not sound right to me.

Touche’! Audiotroy hit it right on the head. The Phono pre amp is the gateway to great vinyl sound. Based on your current set of components I would put money into a bettter cartridge (Dynavector 10X5) and phonostage (Musicial Surroundings Nova). Upgrading your whole turntable so you can fiddle with azimuth settings makes no sense, the REGA has a very lively, energetic, engaging sound. Be happy with it, at this stage things just get more sensitive from here which can be a good or bad thing. Stay in the fun zone upgrade your REGA ...www.groovetracer.com

P.S. If I was going to find a table that would be a true upgrade without losing the great REGA sound is a J.A Michell Gyro SE....this table (with the Techno arm, a modded RB250) retains all the great aspects of the RP6 but elevates everything in terms of sweetness and detail with better dynamics and much greater sensitivity, Built like a battleship this table has a slew of adjustments and upgrades if thats desired.

Matt M