Buying a new TT today

@cd318 I watched those videos long time ago, who will buy a $200k turntable? I have no idea who told you this is the best turntable ever made ?

Try this or this version.

When the difference in sound is very small but the difference in price is very big would you go for the most expensive one? Do you own this turntable or youtube is your reference to compare cartridges and turntables listening to the mp3 file?

Only very reach people can buy the most expensive, but the vinyl is not for reach, it’s for everyone. In my country we have people who will buy ONLY the most expensive audio gear and those people know nothing about the sound, there is a business model for such people and we have a lot of companies in High-End world serving those people needs (only the most expensive gear). Desire to have a perfect sound in your house/room has nothing to do with desire to own the most expensive high-end gear.

I appreciate the ability to build a decent audio system using reasonably priced components only (but they are still expensive). We must have knowledge and experience to do so, it is an interesting process.

The ones who just buy the most expensive without doing any research of course cannot appreciate what they own.

I am sure in certain situations the most expensive is the best, but you still need to confirm that.

Chakster - "It is not about saving as you can see, but when it comes to the price for some new equipment it is simply insane (a cartridge for $5k for example or even higher, a phono stage for $10k, a turntable for $20k ... etc)." 

As I said it is not about savings, but value. Just being a little nit picky on verbiage, but I think we are saying essentially the same thing.

You must be an active seller on Audiogon with all those cartridges and tables going in and out of your hands.

Hello,
I was just thinking if we buy a new TT with the stock cart maybe we should upgrade the cart right away and save the stock cart for when we sell the TT. It seams to me that carts have a life maybe 2000 full plays. You get to hear the music in the best light and you will probably get more money selling it with the virgin cart. Since there is no counter on the cart I would feel better buying that particular TT. Just food for thought. Op, let us know what you ended up doing. 

chakster,

"I have no idea who told you this is the best turntable ever made ?"

Well since you asked, I first read about this in Greg Milner's book Perfecting Sound Forever. 

It was never stated as the best turntable ever built, but there was no denying the extraordinary lengths the designers had gone to in their attempt at designing from the ground up a no holds barred ultimate record player. The stand alone cost £60k!

The only other superdeck I had heard about was something called the Techdas 1, I think. Another fabulously larger than life design.

I only later became aware of such things as the remarkable SP10 etc after Technics had relaunched the 1200.

hshifi - 

I don't think anyone cares about a stock cartridge being on a turntable unless it is a really inexpensive rig (if you want to call it that) when they are looking to buy a used table. If the one that comes with it is OK with you, you might as well just keep it and play it. If you want a better one, buy it and I guess hold on to the old one, depending on the cost of the new one.

You can always replace it, or get a new stylus or the cartridge serviced to original specs.

My $.02