Adventures in Table Shopping


At nearby Goodwin's High End recently I was turntable shopping (My Linn Basik/Akito is getting a little old but still works great) and the "Turntable Expert" there (older, distinguished looking dude) who was assisting me first utterly ignored my query about a Pro-Ject "The Classic" table I was thinking about (really…like I was speaking Mandarin), and was only interested in pushing a Rega P3 with a Funk Firm arm and a Hana cart. Sends the unused Rega arms to Sota he said. Fine. He gets a Funk arm for me to look at and doesn't notice it's just a Rega and not the Funk arm and fumbles it back into the box, noting he doesn't have the Funk arm. Oh well…he lopes  off to help somebody with a speaker (no biggie)…at some point notes that he is a huge Linn user, has 3 modded and "special" ones, loves MC cartridges, and says you shouldn't use them with metal platters (Linn freak…aluminum isn't magnetic…weird again). He's busy to some degree (and there's literally 3 customers there) and I ask him to write down the model of the Funk Firm arm and I'll look it up later…he writes it on his card and off I go (although I had wandered around the store for a while to look at the exotica…sweet…). I get home and when I try to find the arm, the model number for the arm doesn't exist anywhere including the Funk Firm site, and realized this person is the poster boy for what's wrong with high end audio. I now doubt that Goodwin's will ever see any of my cash, and, hopefully I'll never see that dude again. Lame, but not totally unexpected. I had a better experience there a couple of years ago, but they didn't have a Linn belt to sell me and weren't very interested in getting me one, so, again, meh...
wolf_garcia
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A good inexpensive cartridge can out perform an expensive one if it is well matched and set up properly. Take the lowly Denon Dl 103. Slight mods, well matched and set up well and it will out perform many much more expensive cartridges.
Yea, but will an inexpensive cartridge out perform a more expensive one if BOTH are well matched and set up properly?
Raymonda…got the link…thanks. Regarding the Sumiko Pearl, I bought a highly regarded AT440MLA  and it sounded screechy with too much treble, or at least unlistenable so off it went…the Pearl was recommended by the Natural Sound dude and he was absolutely correct about the sound…so good I re-tipped it a few months ago.
Wolf_Garcia.
Where did you send the Cartridge for retip? What is the turn around time?
 Thanks 

No offense but these anecdotal, individual encounters don't say much about a business, in my opinion. Every retail outlet has its pluses and minuses, including Goodwin's. The guy you mentioned is probably the new person at the counter - I've spoken to him a number of times and i'm sure he'll work out his style. I've bought a few things at Goodwin's and have no complaints at all. But they serve a particular market (High End, as in their name), so if you're looking for warm and fuzzy, or good value for the mid-range consumer, Goodwin's ain't the place. You could try Q Audio in Central Square. They've always been a great resource in my opinion, and Dariusz won't sniff at a Sumiko Pearl.