My jazz collection told me to get a *real* system

Thanks for the tip, johnnyb53!

I would try Nagaoka cartridge if it is compatible with your tonearm, get it at lpgear.com, prices are $110-$750, I think.

I would try Nagaoka cartridge if it is compatible with your tonearm, get it at lpgear.com, prices are $110-$750, I think.

Speaking of compatibility, the first cartridge on my turntable was a Shure M97xE. I never had to make any adjustments in effective mass when I switched to the AT150MLX or AT150Sa. Their cartridge weights and dynamic compliance ratings were in the same range as the Shure M97xE.

Jazz is my fave also, especially piano trios (my beatnik phase kicked in about a decade ago…it's never too late). Any great system should support whatever style of music you put through it, and mine now has an SEP tube amp of 12 watts per side, and 250 watts of bass potential from two REL subs. This seems to work somehow…who knew? Old Monk LPs, orchestral stuff, or modern Vijay Iyer (this dude can paste you to the wall…in a good way)…the rig should embrace either one and if it can't there's something wrong with it. I think great tube amps can hit a level of musicality and clarity at a lower price point than comparable SS amps might…I used a Jolida 502p for years and thought it sounded fabulous at around 1200 bucks, and the SEP I now use from amp guru Dennis Had lists for maybe 1500 and sounds like I'll own it forever, and it only has 4 tubes to worry about. I've actually compared it (in my home rig) to a recent vintage Pass "First Watt" amp and thought it sounded better at much less money, although if I was going to use an SS amp again a Pass would be on my short list. Tubes.

randy-11 wrote:

a tube pre with a SS amp will be fine and give you the euphonic sound people are urging
that’s what I use with my Maggie 3.7i’s - and they Maggies are xlnt for jazz
1.7s would fit your budget

This describes my own electronics evolution since getting my Maggie 1.7s in Nov. 2013.

I have matching handwired MAGI PTP phono and line stages. The line stage feeds a 1980s Perreaux PMF1150B MOSFET amp. The amp is rated at 100 wpc into 8 ohms, and given its heft, I suspect it’s feeding the Maggies 200 watts into their 4-ohm largely resistive load. It’s a captivating match.

I think there’s more to tube-driven preamps than euphonics. I hear largely the same tonal balance and timbres as with good solid state, but the tubes do low level detail, the sense of the room size and the bloom and decay of notes, not just in the recording venue, but within the instruments themselves.

Tubes driving MOSFET SS can be a really good match because MOSFETS lend themselves to the same sort of transconductance architecture as is found in tube amps. But MOSFETs bring high current and a high comfort level to low-impedance speakers.

BTW, I've been a big jazz nut since I was 11. I have a pretty sizeable jazz LP collection, and attendance to enough live performances to have a sense of what things should sound like. I've seen Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich (5 times), Stan Kenton, Dave Pike, Gary Burton (with Pat Metheny on guitar), Stanley Turrentine, Don Ellis, Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton, Count Basie, Louie Bellson, Quincy Jones with Melba Moore and Sarah Vaughan, the L.A. Four (Shelley Manne, Ray Brown, Laurinda Almeida and Bud Shank), Mose Allison, and Cab Calloway and his big band.

I find the new *.7 series of Maggies to be stupendous for just about anything, but they really shine on jazz. The large radiating surface of Maggie panels is a lot closer to the size of a piano soundboard than conventional speakers. Pianos sound stunningly real. But then, so do horns, flutes, sax, vibraphone, acoustic bass, and brass.

If you consider upgrading your speakers (and with an $8K budget you should), I wouldn't spend a dime without auditioning a pair of Magnepan 1.7i s. And make sure the dealer knows how to show them at their best. My sales rep actually got out a tape measure to make sure he had the 1.7s properly placed and angled.