New Rega Planer 8 (P8) Turntable - Apheta 2 Cartridge Combo - Thoughts

It’s good that you’re getting glimpses of excellence, but to be fair that "Brothers in Arms" album is long known for getting the best out of systems, even when most other other rock albums fall flat. I’d keep letting the system burn/settle in for at least 30-50 hours, and get the VTF dialed in as soon as possible.

As for vinyl quality - I’m commonly disappointed by the SQ of reissues and Record Store Day issues. New music on vinyl can sometimes be quite good. Vintage can be great or terrible, but is often cheap enough to experiment. Sorry to hear you’re having struggles with some of your other vinyl purchases.

Off the top of my head, here’s a few of my favorites for sound quality & music quality:

Nirvana "Unplugged" (ORG best, but any is good)
Alice In Chains "Unplugged" (MOV)
Alice in Chains "Jar of Flies" (MOV)
War on Drugs "A Deeper Understanding"
A-Ha "Hunting High and Low" (original press)
A-Ha "Unplugged (Summer Sessions)"
Ten Years After "A Space In Time"
Red Hot Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magic"
Al Stewart "Year of the Cat"
Wild Nothing "Nocturne"
Fleetwood Mac "Rumors"
Daft Punk "Random Access Memories"
Miami Horror "All Possible Futures"
Tracy Chapman "Tracy Chapman"
Klaatu "Klaatu", "Hope"
Edguy - "Monuments" box set (if you like Euro power metal)

I wanted to thank everyone for all of their help and advice with my vinyl journey. I really appreciate it and you guys helped me clear up a lot!

 My Digital set up that I am currently using is just too good. It's not just the DAC either. With digital everything matters. 

Honestly it wasn't even close. 

Here is what I bought for my vinyl front end.

Rega Planer 8 Turntable > RB880 Tonearm > Neo PSU
Rega Apheta 2 Cartridge
SRA Silent Running Audio Ohio Class Isolation Platform
Sutherland Engineering Duo Phono Stage
AudioQuest Fire RCA 1.0M Interconnects 
AudioQuest Niagara 1000 Power Strip
AudioQuest Tornado AC Cable to power the AQ Niagara 1000
(2) Audience Au24se LP Power Cables to power the 2-Duo's

This above setup is a pretty competent analogue set up. I admit that I didn't spend much time at all with it mainly because there was never a point where it ever even resembled a contest.

My hope was it would sound different and/or good enough to make me want pursue analogue. That was not the case. 

This digital set up below made it no contest. I am going to list my set up in event anyone wants to hear some of the best digital audio on the planet. I have been refining and trial and erroring my way to this set up for years and always tweaking for best performance so wanted to share with you guys.

This digital sounds nothing like digital that people write and speak about. Yes this digital set up is a lot more money so not really a fair fight but still the difference in audio quality was incredible so wanted to share. I don't understand why people even like analogue? I mean the above set up is about $18,000 in retail prices and it just don;t? Well at least I got to try it first hand and see for myself. 
Thanks    
:
Bricasti Design M1 Special Edition DAC
Bricasti Design built in M12 Ethernet Network Player
Symposium Acoustics Svelte Plus Isolation Platform
(4) Isoacoustic Iso-pucks under the Symposium Platform   
*SGC SonicTransporter Gen1 - SSD Roon Server w/J1900 10w cpu 
WD My Cloud 12v 2TB NAS powered via Breeze Linear Pwr Supply 
Uptone Audio JS-2 (2-Rails) Linear Pwr Supply
(4) Gent Audio Custom DC Cables (Canare Cable/Oyaide Plugs)
The Linear Solution OCXO Ethernet Switch  
The Linear Solution LPS-912 OCXO Regulated Linear Power Supply
AudioQuest Vodka RJ/E 1.0M Ethernet Cables
The Linear Solution Custom RJ/E 1.5M Ethernet Cable
Kubala-Sosna Elation 1.5M AC Power Cable
Kubala-Sosna Research Emotion XLR 1.5M Interconnects
Furutech GTX (R) Outlets
PS Audio Noise Harvesters (6)
Blue Circle Audio The Yalu Balula

* SGC is Small Green Computer: They make affordable and incredible sounding music servers that when pared to top flight power supplies, premium cables and SOTA DAC's perform incredible.  
  


   

fsmithjack-

That system certainly wasn't entry level, although I personally would  have gone tube phonostage.

Still curious if you've heard a table based system you liked?

20K worth of table,cart, and phonostage.
No fancy cables and doodads, can sound amazing. My opinion, naturally.

One other thing, one's choice  in records arguably may influence preferences.

Reissued discs of music originally released on record, are subjectively no better than the CD. IMHO


I'm  one of  those  who obsess playing original presses. Even "greatest hits" are subpar in my realm!

I wonder if your opinion would have been different, if you heard the PERIOD DS album?

Oh well, happy listening.