Your choice - TT, Arm, Stage, Cartridge - $5000 budget
So..$1.5k for Spacedeck/Spacearm and $2k for the Allnic phono. That leaves $1.5k for cartridge, interconnect from phono to amp and power cord for the phono. Pretty good. You don't need tonearm cable for the Spacearm, the wire goes from the cartridge to RCA connectors. That's just one possibility. jmcgrogan2, could you describe the sound of the Allnic? Do you still use VAC Sigma amp? |
jmcgrogan2, could you describe the sound of the Allnic? Natural, well balanced. Not overly warm and tubey sounding, but no sense of edginess or harshness. Not overly warm, or transparent, just relaxed, and natural sounding. Do you still use VAC Sigma amp? No. I am now running a ARC Ref 5 preamp with Pass Labs XA-100.5 monoblock amps with my Allnic H1201 phono stage. |
I see that dealer just lowered his asking price on the VPI Prime from $2800 to $2500. I don't expect that to last long. http://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649369475-vpi-prime-turntable-like-new/ |
Yeah if a Prime is on your list that is about the best I have seen. There was one sold on another board by a guy upgrading and he sold it out of good will for $2400 which is the lowest I have seen to date. If its not on your list just skip it because nothing is going to make you want it if you really are not interested in the table/brand even at a good price. For the record I am listening to Blues Breakers with John Mayall and Eric Clapton. I would say a very nice 3d state, well balanced with nice resolution and smooth sound. If the VPI is not for you I would consider Well Tempered Amadeus. I think some of the SME or Basis tables are going to be hard to work in your budget with a nice Phono stage unless you go really cheap for your first cart which is a viable strategy. A cheap cart can sound pretty good on a nice analog setup. A expensive cart on a cheap analog system not so much. I think buying the Second Tier version of the new Technics would also be an option. It would be new and high performance. More on the quick tight analytical side but a lot of bang for the buck I am guessing from reading the reviews. |
