Turntable upgrade recommendations: SME vs AMG vs Technics vs other

@lewm

Yes, it should be common knowledge among Ypsilon VPS-100 (phono stage) purchasers that an SUT goes between your turntable and the phono stage. Ypsilon has three or four various SUT for sale/use, depending on the output of the cartridge in use, and that does increase the expense, but *only* by about $3k if you get the basic copper SUT . . .

I've owned or worked on many turntables over the last five decades. Regardless of sound quality, none have been as much of a joy to use as SME.

In addition, very few other turntable manufacturers have the equipment and skills to achieve the incredibly tight tolerances that you find in all SME turntables and tonearms; one of the many reasons for their excellent sound quality.

Funny story. To prove in principle that my contention he needed more gain in order to soothe his itch, I lent the owner of the Ypsi my own 25-year-old Quicksilver phonolinepreamp which is worth maybe $1200.  I hooked it up in his system so the signal from the Ypsi passed through the Quicksilver linestage section and then to his amplifiers.  In sum, he had a SUT of unknown turns ratio feeding the Ypsi which was feeding the Q. Results were dramatically better. He genuinely loved it. I keep the Q around for a spare and did not really want to sell it, but the point was made that he did not have to spend a fortune in order to add some gain via an active linestage.  However, such is the cost conscious snobbery of high end-ism (more $ = better sound) that he replaced my Q with an albeit very fine VAC linestage costing him another $26K.

@drbond -  I spoke with a Rega dealer who is also a SOTA dealer and asked him about the clamps for a P8 and they have two models, the reflex that is 8 oz and the screw down is 4 oz. He thought it would help for warped records, and he only had the 4 oz one in stock, which I guess he recommends because of the lower weight.

Since probably 97-99% of my records are not warped, I didn't go ahead and get one.

Do you find it helps for all records, or primarily warped ones? Also, as an FYI, he prefers Rega to SOTA tables.

@lewm

Yes, there is always some "cost conscious snobbery of high-endism", but I find that there is also a performance difference with the coat as well. I have a 35 year old Krell KSA-100, which would only cost $1500 today, and it sounds really good, and while listening to it I am left wondering, "How could things sound much better?". . .but then I compare it to a newer $35k amplifier, and the newer one definitely sounds better, but then the next question is, "Is it worth it?" I suppose that’s the question each individual must answer for himself.

@sokogear

Yes, no doubt the SOTA clamp helps with warped records alot, insofar as holding them down, but the sonic difference is very significant even on flat, non-warped records: *everything* is much clearer, cleaner, and more detailed.

It looks like the screw-on clamp (marketed as the I-clamp) is quite a bit less expensive than the clasp-on clamp (marketed as the reflex clamp). I don’t know what the sonic difference, if any, would be between the two. . .