Thoughts on moving from a 1200G to Sota Saphire or above

@lewm,

"The audio establishment sold us the idea that headshells were inherently unstable mounted at the end of an arm wand, so now we’ve got a lot of expensive tonearms with fixed headshells. Around the same time they sold us the idea that bass and treble controls and loudness controls were mucking up the sound quality of our music, so they’ve been deleted. Rightly or wrongly these “innovations” that were near to universally adopted have certainly reduced the cost of manufacture, while prices have gone skyward."


Same thing happening with phones and chargers - its green, and it’s good for the planet etc.

Similar thing happened in the 1990s when the loudspeaker manufacturers jumped on the MDF bandwagon.

As usual it’s nothing more or less than about reducing manufacturing costs and maximising profits.


The tricky bit is selling this reduction of choice/lack of freedom to the customer.
This is where the clever marketing comes in.

Some of the best arms ever built had removeable headshells.

Personally, I’d play with different cartridges before moving on from your current table. I’d question that a table upgrade alone at $10k will make a bigger difference. I’d go cartridge, then preamp before a different table. But I love your table. I have the GAE. it’s so strong, neutral, dynamic, and not fussy. 

Not fussy is one of the attributes I like about the 1200G too. I would say it’s neutral. I think dynamic is the descriptor where I’m looking for more. But, other things could contribute to that like cart, preamp, speakers, etc. I listened to a couple other album sides using the AQ Water IC from phono to preamp and with the other two album sides I could here a more dynamic presentation compared with the IC I use regularly. I can’t help but think how what the improvement would be with another Water going from phono preamp to line stage. Investing in two Water IC’s would be close to $1400 for me. I know there would be an improvement but from a cost benefit ratio, not sure I would hear $1400 of improvement. If I were to move on to more phono specific IC’s I’d look at companies that allow for an upgrade at most or all of original purchase value like with Transparent Cable or similar. 

Nothing will give you more than another cartridge without changing anything else in your system. 


Room treatment can give you a lot. Room analysis is FREE at https://www.acousticfields.com/

@bfoura, I have used the 1200G with Timestep mod and tried couple of tonearms on them too. I used it along side a Loricraft Garrard 301, Jean Nantais Reference Lenco Mk2 (still use it) & SP10 Mk2. Everything in the same room, same system. I particularly dislike SMPS & Wallwart PSUs so I had the Timestep motor controller. The 1200G is a fantastic TT if you don't hear it's flaws. It sounds clean, times very well, no-nonsense. 

But having other TTs in the room and being accustomed to idlers and BDs I heard 2 distinct drawbacks:

1. The note to note transition was not fluid, a start-stop feel.

2. Dynamics: Everything sounded smaller and controlled in 1200G compared to the other TTs. The explosive dynamics were missing. The SP10mk2 was better. The idlers were simply in a different league. My previous TT was a Platine Verdier and that too had an effortless seemingly unlimited dynamics. 1200G sounds puny compared to them. If that's your concern then no tonearm or cart upgrade will cure it. 

But 1200G still has its pluses. I have not heard the SOTA but reading about it I do get a feeling it would be nice. Nottingham Analogue Hyperspace is also a good choice.