What is best turntable for listening to Rock from the sixties like Led Zeppelin?

inna1,906 posts03-24-2016 6:34pmAtma-Sphere is wrong, once again. But if he wants to convince some of us he should try and prove what he says.
Next thing he might say is that amp is an amp, and if it's good it's equally good for everything. Then he will move to speakers. And after that to guitars. Martin guitar would not be best for flamenco or the kind of music that John McLaughlin used to play. John himself said it, I am just repeating it.
There is a lot of art in designing good equipment, not only "stupid" science. But a lot of science too.

"Should" not depend on style of music is right, theoretically. But in practice, since all turntables have failings in different ways, ways that are related to certain aspects of music and/or sound, it may be advisable to find a table that least harms music in ways most important to oneself or to the music one most listens to.

For instance, just as an intellectual exercise: organ music is better served by a table great at reproducing low frequencies than one weak in that regard, whereas music without a lot of deep bass but with long-held piano noted needs a table with the lowest wow & flutter, a failing less harmful to the organ music with no long-held notes. The table that provides great bass could be weak in regards to wow & flutter, making it fine for the organ lover, not so good for the piano lover. Of course we all want a table with no musical or sonic failings; how many of us has one?

But, really, how many of us has the luxury of any such choice? The cartridge is normally the first part the LP player chosen, for the same reason the loudspeaker is at the other end: it's a transducer, far more variable in sound characteristics than the other parts (uh, right?). Who picks his arm first, then his cartridge? Or his amp first, then for a speaker it works well with? A knucklehead. Cartridge chosen, an arm appropriate for the cartridge is next. Then, lastly, the table. Owners of Oracle Delphi's learned why that table was not the best choice for the ET air-bearing arm: the mass of the arm tube was too great for the table's suspension, changing the level of the table as it moved across the LP. The VPI HW-19, on the other hand, was a good match for the arm.

Yeah cleeds, my argument was more of an intellectual (though by that I don’t mean smart!) or theoretical one for justifying the case of choosing a table based on the differing musical abilities of various models. I had a friend (R.I.P.) who had perfect pitch, and was very bothered by music played back too fast or slow. Other listeners without pp wouldn’t be bothered by a table not playing back at the exact correct speed, or records mastered incorrectly.

As long as a listener stays with cartridges having about the same compliance and mass, no problem with the original arm. But that does not change the fact that if you have an arm of high moving mass, you better not want or use a high compliance cartridge, or visa versa. In that sense, the arm limits the choice of cartridge; change cartridge types, and you may need a different arm. I would much rather have my cartridge choice dictate my arm than visa versa.