recommendation for a high end analog system

@ianderson,

The Maplenoll was very quiet, smooth, excellent bass, and most everything sounded beautiful on it.  After reading my post again, my comments on the OL Illustrious II had to do mostly with arms I've had since the 'Noll.  The OL Illustrious II Is more detailed, dynamic, with  more grunt in the bass.  I never put a different arm on the 'Noll.  The only real issue I had with the 'Noll was the delivery of the air to the arm.  It took very little air to move the turntable but much more to keep the arm working correctly.  Twice I had something between the pump and the TT disconnect because of the high pressure pump.  The TT would keep spinning, but the arm would freeze and thus become very rigid.  The cantilever's on two different cartridges snapped from the pressure of the stylus being stuck in the groove.  Very expensive with good cartridges.  A significant portion of the better sound of the OL over the 'Noll is because of the modded Lenco.  

My original post was to be mostly a praise for the OL Illustrious II arm in my system.  The simplicity of its use is also very appreciated since using the Trans-Fi Terminator arm along with the Pete Riggle Woody--both very fine sounding arms.  The OL Illustrious II is just better at everything sound wise.  It might be a 15-20% improvement overall.  I now have a used Walker Precision Motor Controller, but have yet to install the IEC in the back of my Lenco build to actually use it.  From what I've read from others who have, it should make a noticeable improvement in the sound along with keeping the speed perfect, and having a toggle switch to change the phase available.  

My apologies for all this info on the OP's thread.

Bob

bkeske, the beauty of the Sota dust cover is that it is attached to the plinth cover which is connected to the chassis. The sub chassis which holds the platter and tonearm is hanging from the chassis with 4 springs tuned to 3 Hz. Nothing that happens above 3 Hz gets to the sub chassis and that includes everything that is happening to the cover and dust cover including banging it with a hammer. Try it, really! Using the dust cover during play is like giving your cartridge hearing protection. It also keeps the record's exposure to dust and pollution limited and it is also brilliantly simple to use. I had this discussion with Mark Dohmann and he totally agrees. He is or has designed an isolated dust cover for his Helix tables to use during play. 

So, do yourself a favor and order a dust cover from Sota!

How much difference is there between Origin Live MK4 and Conqueror? The price differential is not that great. There are SME V's on sale but they seem much more expensive. Any thoughts?

@Chungji,

As has been mentioned, your biggest issue is a cart and arm mass mismatch. Start there and solve that first...then re-assess. 

Then there is the stylus itself. The Denon 103r is a great conical...it's gutsy but it will not give you the detail of a great microline.

Lastly it's about dialing the cart in.

@sandthemall, I retipped the 103r with a Shibata asymmetrical tip and sapphire cantilever and changed the epoxy body to solid aluminum. So, I think the cartridge is decent, IMO. The current arm Sumiko MMT (really Jelco) has an effective mass of 20 gm; which fits with 103r (likes a tone arm on the heavier side as you know).