2. analog
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High end turntables

I grew up with turntables… 60’s, 70’s…. 90’s. I collected albums. The biggest wow moment was when I finally got a high end turntable. I had had a Philips then a reissue of the AR sprung table that I could rap on the cover while playing a record… and no skip or sound, and a classic Shute V1 (?). It was the best sound around.

 

But it wasn’t until around 1990 I bought a high end turntable and cartridge that my jaw dropped in disbelief at the sound vinyl was capable. The pops and clicks virtually disappeared, surface noise was completely gone. This table was a VPI Aries and a Van der Hull Frog… a $2,500 cartridge (in 1990…. What $10K+ now).

I am currently listening to a 1972 album that I bought for a dollar. It looks like it was used as a frisbee in competition. Scraped, warn… it looks terrible. I have a record cleaner… I had cleaned it years ago when I had purchased it. I almost put it back, thinking i wanted to enjoy my listening session. But I put it on. Wow, it is beautiful, quiet and wonderful dynamics. I have always attributed the ability of high end tables ability to play really crappy disks that the stylist goes deeper in the groves than old cheap turntables. Maybe that is correct.

My real point is. If there are some people out there that have budget tables and phono-stages that sound pretty good and you are reluctant to throw a ridiculous amount of money thinking it may not be worth it… analog done well is truly amazing. You of course need good basic equipment… preamp, amp, and speakers. But the level of sound quality of vinyl is truly amazing.

 

ghdprentice
whart's avatar
whart
3,063 posts
 

I think high end turntable comparisons are hard to come by, unless you have a very accommodating, connected dealer or access to someone who owns several high end turntables. I compared a Kuzma Reference Triplanar arm with new Lyra Titan i to a Kuzma XL/Airline in my system, using the same cartridge. It was a revealing presentation, mostly in what the better table "didn’t" do-- it was artifacts that were missing from the better presentation.

Play a lot of different program material.

How do you avoid the issue of a cartridge that matches the system voice working better on one arm than another?

Lots of variables. Very few opportunities to drill down and compare directly in a controlled environment.

And the differences may vary depending the LP-- which leads you to set up changes per record, something most people like to avoid.

No answers, more questions.

geof3
1,129 posts
 

I think the biggest challenge with any vinyl system is the variable nature of the game. SO many things effect the sound overall it is a bit overwhelming for some new to the game. Having said that, overcoming the hurdles and landing on a sweet sounding setup is the payoff and every bit worth the $ and brain damage to get the thing dialed.

nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

Notions or concepts are ''oppositional'' ( binair) arranged linguistic 

expression  meant for our ''mental orientation''. But notions and

concepts are not expression which can be true or false. Those

are only statements or propositions . Aka ''statement which correspond

with reality'' . I prefer ''propositions'' to avoid reference to statements

expressed in different languages . Those imply translations with ''the

same meaning''  which is an  problematic, uh, concept. 

So ''high end TT's''   imply ''low end TT's''.  Only two kinds? 

 

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