So happens I had an AR turntable from the late 70’s. I treated it with great care. Had it maintained a couple years ago. It was not remotely competitive with the VPI I bought in 1995 and certainly not in the same league as my current Linn LP12.
Every day I see another turntable recommendation...
After digging into this topic, I am convinced now I need to go a bit higher on this first vinyl set up. I think all in, I am prepared at this point to go up to $5k, for the table alone, not including arm or cartridge.
But frankly, being on this forum is like drinking from an information firehose. I have learned a bunch and yet somehow, I am less convicted than before.
With that in mind, to narrow down the decision, I am want to restrict myself to things I can buy, hear and, if necessary, service locally. My local dealers stock, AMG, AVM, Basis, Clearaudio, Michell, Musichall, Pro-ject, Rega, VPI, so I am likely restricted to those brands. I am certain my view will change by the end of this thread.
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J-wall Im interested in your upgrade path on turntable and cartridge an upgraded cartridge and a little better TT goes a long way but, I’m most interested in your sq difference between the solid state musical surroundings phono and Allnic phono. One of my audio buddies has converted to mostly Allnic . Just wondering what the true differences were ? Saulh j-wall said a mouthful In a few sentences . In my opinion he’s very right , but I’m limited in TT experience. Audio buddies have high end stuff to compare my stuff too acoustic solid with triplaner and Purple Heart & esoteric phone and avid & lyra & ref 6 phono I’m interested in your current thoughts as to your direction Jeff
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@frozentundra, obviously I am just learning about this so take all of what follows with a chunk of salt and ymmv. For me, though I think every link in the chain is important, I think the phono stages dictate the signal that gets through to the pre/power and can exist in my system for many years, so I made that my priority. Cartridge is also hugely important and I think quality can have a big impact for relatively little cost so it is not imo where you want to cut corners, but is more temporary, so its impact on my system will be less imho. Turntable is important too, but my current impression is that there are a lot of similar quality options close in price in the range where I am looking and big improvements come at huge cost. I am less focused on tonearms for better or worse. Anyway, in line with my priority, I saw what looked like a good deal on an Icon Audio PS1 MKii, so I took it. Now I am looking at turntables, mostly focusing on what I can hear at local dealers who are willing to plug my phono stage into the system. So far, I have heard the Clearaudio Concept and Performance DC as well as the Rega P3 and the Project Xtension 10. At this point, I am leaning toward the Performance DC, but tbh, I was coming here today to ask the question: is the $2k price difference between the two Clearaudio models worth it? I could get a decent streamer for that money... |
OP, You got it. While I am not specifically with the two Clearaudio models, my experience is that in that price range $2K will make a BIG difference. The Performance DC puts you in a difference class. While you could get a decent streamer there is a sizable performance premium in vinyl in this price category.
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