Help with TT ideas for my first TT

+1 for Discogs. I buy classical and jazz, but assume rock is the same experience. I have had great luck with quality and prices, and while USPS Media Mail, used for shipping, is cheap it can be pretty slow.  The Discogs blog is also a very good source of information — top picks by genre, Best albums by artist, that sort of thing. Make sure you have an Audioquest carbon fiber brush, or similar, for cleaning. Vinyl needs to be clean, clean, clean. And take care of that cartridge tip while you’re at it.

I had a project 1expression with Ortofon 2m bronze cart. When looking to upgrade, I tried a Rega P6 with exact cartridge which was only slightly better than my project table. I wanted a dramatic upgrade so I ended up with a VPI Prime Scout. I am so happy I went this way. The second I dropped the needle on this table, I was in heaven. It is upgradeable to their Prime as well which means, this will likely be my last table. I am using the Ortofon 2M Bronze on this table as well.

I got the Boundless brush and MoFi brush to do cleaning so far.  Have not had to deal with much.  I have a Korg ADC for ripping Vinyl but getting alot of pops on that. I think it is more related to the USB cable versus the TT, but trying to diagnose that at the moment.

With respect to VPI upgrades are they that modular?

Adam

So I have been listening for a week and the sound is nice and fully from what I can’t tell. However I still get pops in my lps.  I have static cleaned the new records and cleaned the stylus( made things better).

what i am not sure is this normal or is something off with my TT?

thanks all

You can get occasional pops from your vinyl, it is fairly normal; It isn’t a digital format. You may want to invest in a record cleaner, and also a Zerostat anti-static gun. But even then, if you have some old albums, no matter how hard you try, and how much you clean, you may always have *some* surface noise depending on how they were cared for, the stylus the previous owner used, etc. Noise can also happen with LP’s that were not pressed well, even new ones. Pops can be from specs of dust, not only static. So many factors. 

Brush with a carbon fiber brush before each play. Keep your stylus clean. Clean your records. Zap with a Zerostat gun, especially when humidity become lower in the air. Those are good basic practices.

Some higher end cartridges and phono stages can also help in reducing (hiding) noise. It’s a journey, but don’t expect that part of playing vinyl to be as dead quiet as digital formats....all the time.