Frustrated with Vinly

LOOKS, oh yeah, important, I am an Interior Designer (Corporate Office Space).

I had cool looking and performing vintage Thorens/SME, made a custom wood base for it, terrific,

Found a Technics SP-15, Plastic Base, gave it to my friend.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Technics-SH-15B3-base-dust-cover-and-hinges-Technics-SP-15-and-SP25-Turntable/323741055782?hash=item4b60787b26:g:ReMAAOSwrnRaVO67

they make a nice wood base, would perk it’s look up quite a bit.

https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649580540-technics-sp15-sp25-plinth-great-shape/

but Thorens bearing transmitted vertical vibration too much.

So, I’ve been compromising with Plastic Technics’s for years.

Recently decided, retired, listening more, why not move up. Thought about long 12" arm. Coincidentally, MONO cartridge thread here. Learned about superb plinths made by Denon, JVC Victor.

Learned about JVC Spinners TT61, 71,81, 101 (picked 81).

OMG, learned about Victor Large Plinth CL-P2 big, solid, heavy, and fits two arms.

Put Mono together with 2 arm wood deck, got this beauty which certainly LOOKS great while being great.

https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649563331-victor-jvc-tt-81-high-quality-quartz-lock-turntable-with-fidelity-research-tonearm/?utm_campaign=response-received&utm_source=notification&utm_medium=email

Point is, Chackster can be too ..., but he is right about the vintage Denon and JVC.

Budget,

Dual Deck with 1 arm (use for mono), convert 1,000 CAD to USD $775. add $150 ship with insurance. Add $50. PayPal 2.9% fee to convert foreign currencies: $975. delivered, Budget: $1,000. USD

Now get a nice Stereo arm of choice. I got lucky, member here, uberwaltz (thanks again) found it for me

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649571086-lustre-801-tonearm/?utm_campaign=response-received&utm_source=notification&utm_medium=email

Cost: $650. offer accepted. : $700. delivered, Budget: $1,000. USD

Total, delivered: $ $1,675. Budget: $2,000.

Just saying, I am in love with the LOOKS as well as the performance.

Giving your arm and cartridge the advantage of a solid base/plinth makes a big difference!

IF you go the JVC-Victor Plinth route,

be very cautious about an included Victor Tonearm, UA-7045 or long version UA-7082.

they can be great, but, as Chackster and others alerted me/us, VERY OFTEN the rubber gasket is deteriorated and needs replacement.

I took mine apart, figured it out, wrote a thread how to fix it.

Fear not if you want one, but, be aware of this, don’t pay too much for one, and be handy if you want to fix it yourself.

Live near me, Plainfield, NJ? I’ll fix it for you, no charge.

Not to belabor this thread, but its my understanding that there are fundamentally 3 different turntable drives:  rim drive, belt-drive and direct-drive, and there are pros and cons to each, and each has has been successfully executed.  Some think the Lenco L75 rim drive is the best,  http://high-endaudio.com/RC-Lenco.html.  There are obvious fans of the Technics and VPI coreless motor drive drive, and then there is Basis who goes to near heroic effort  to manufacture a near perfect belt  https://www.basisaudio.com/revolution-belt. For my VPI TNT that uses the Avenger baseline motor and 20-lb Classics platter, I use two belts of two different materials (not sold by VPI), EDPM to get the platter spining, and Viton to stabilize speed.  The two belts are the same length and durometer, but the different material elongation properties will cause different beating/hysteresis (belt going from tension off the platter, to relaxing after the motor before the platter). In "theory" this should reduce the risk of any resonance from multiple belts of the same material beating at the same frequency.  So, there are many ways to effectively spin that platter. However, not a plug, but I believe that VPI is the only one to manufacture all three.  But, as always, Enjoy the Music. 

Brinkmann a German company make DD and belt, both sound super and are well engineered. The Basis belt is unique and correct AJ a brilliant engineer ( RIP ) came up w proprietary processes to ensure flatness. Tables I own: Brinkmann, SOTA, Denon, gave the Basis away as a birthday gift - fun
peace people, peace !

Wow, I didn't think this thread would grow so large (It's Alive!), lol.

One thing is for sure, we are all quite passionate about listening to music and especially listening to LP's. Definitely something special about LP's in comparison to other formats. In many cases, it can be the center piece of your complete system, something beautiful to behold, something you interact with in such an intimate way compared to other formats.

We all have our personal tastes/interests and experience when it comes to this hobby (I still consider myself a novice). But that is the great thing about it, we can all share our passion together and learn from one another.

And I have already learned quite a bit from this thread and so want to thank each one of you for your contribution! I may not be able to look into or implement every suggestion but I can certainly learn from it and for that, I appreciate all the input!

So, yesterday, I went to that audio store I had mentioned. Took only 3 records with me as I was not sure what to expect. Normally, you buy a cleaning solution and then clean your records but yesterday there was a gentlemen there plugging his device, the Keith Monks "Prodigy" and so was able to get my records cleaned for free yesterday.

He went over all the features of this new device. The housing was made of Bamboo and it was pretty quiet. I thought it looked kind of cool. Overall, it did a pretty decent job of cleaning the records. I just listened to a couple of tracks in the store and although there were still a few clicks/pops it was pretty minute compared to before. 

I liked the machine but it was $995, out of my price range for a device to simply clean records. I will need to stick to something a bit more economical, at least for me.

Did get to check out the Rega P6 and Mo-Fi decks, so that was cool.

It's going to be a little before I actually purchase because I just purchased about a week ago, the Isotek Evo 3 Sirius Power Distribution unit and some new power cables. I have my Intergrated, CD Player, Dac, TT and phono stage now plugged into that unit. I think I hear a slight positive difference in the sound but not sure yet.

Next I need to re-arrange some of my devices in my cabinet and put my current TT in the middle instead of the side (I have the TT, Integrated and CD Player on the top of the cabinet). Once I have that done, then the new TT can simply just slip in place of the Denon, eventually. 

Also going to get a small storage rack just for the LP's so that it can be more accessible. Right now, they are in the cabinet and a hassle to take out and put back (and yes I do store them vertically, haha).

Thanks All!