@clearthinker Thank You for the description.
It is the reduced rich tone that is the appeal to myself. I have become quite adept at adding rich tone when desirable by the use of additional ancillaries.
I will send a private mail.
Do I buy an upscale TT?
I recently heard a $50K TT at a friend’s and was floored by the performance.
It was a sound from a system I have never heard.
I have a very nice Woodsong Garrard 301, Tri-Planar arm and Grado Epoch 3 cartridge. Going into an Atma-Sphere MP-1 pre wt phono.
Discovered an affordable TT based on the Legendary Commonwealth idler drive TT (said to be among the best). One is $8500 and the other more elaborate one is $15K.
And there is another highly modified brass Garrard 401 for $10K. (said to be as good as the Commonwealth)
The big question is whether or not I am going to be pleased with the improvement in sound? There will certainly be a lot of hassle to change TTs!
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The TT should not have a sound. The arm, cartridge and phono stage are what is important, assuming a distortion free TT, which it sounds like idler drives are not (never had one) since they seem to have a "sound". They should be well matched in terms of cartridge weight and phono stage compatibility with the cartridge, and of course the arm fitting the turntable. Rega arms are the best bang for the buck, and for ease of implementation of course match perfectly to their tables. If you want to go above a $2200 arm (Rega's top of the line RB3000), have at it. Personally, I went with the RB880 arm for half the price of that, and ended up buying the TT it comes on (P8) after the fact. Kept the same cartridge. Arm made a much bigger difference than the table (had a Rega P5 before the P8).
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@sokogear The ideal, is for the TT to not have a sound, equally attractive is for the TT to have a non-eccentric rotation, with the non-eccentric rotation being available a extremely accurate speed control will be a much desired addition. It is extremely difficult to have a TT that does not produce something as a result of the TT's function that is not a detriment, that does not impart mechanical noise, oscillation or Wow into a replay, either of which are measurable and in frequent cases audible to the end user. There are ways to reduce these detrimental influences, but these cost money if being resolved from a commercial front and can be met with commissioning a skilled individual with a familiarity with a design, to take the work required on. The average individual can learn to service a mechanical part, but to get to a place of noticeable betterment machining of parts can be required. |
@coltrane1 nice setup. As to smoking a 301/401 well probably not. I've hear both in a few setups but YMMV :) Btw hello fellow Washingtonian... |
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