2. analog
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Back in the vinyl saddle again.

Since my divorce 8 years ago, I have not used my turntable and have been spinning CD's, followed by streaming. As a result, I decided to sell the turntable, along with the roughly 1,000 albums I still had.

To that end I set up the turntable so I could demo it for potential buyers.

Unfortunately, once I played first record, I was hooked again. Now I am mired in another rabbit hole and I am in need of some advice and recommendations.

Current setup is a VPI Scoutmaster (circa 2006) w/JMW 9 arm and a Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood MM cartridge. The cartridge is probably overdue for either replacement or retipping. Related equipment are a Musical Fidelity MX-VYNL phono stage, Musical Fidelity M6si integrated, ATC SCM19 speakers and a REL bass array.

My questions are:

1. Should I keep the VPI or sell it and use the money to buy something newer? If I decide to buy, can you recommend any possible replacement? Budget, perhaps $2,000 CDN ($1,500 USD). 

2. If I keep the VPI, can someone please tell me the real effective mass of the JMW 9 (2006 version) I have? I have read it is anywhere between 7.7 and 10.2. Which doesn't really help.

3. Likewise, if I replace the Virtuoso Wood cartridge, what is a good replacement? Either MM or MC. I am considering a Dynavector XX2 MkII if it is a good match for the JMW9. Also, what do you think about buying used cartridges? Is it an option?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

tony1954
alvinnir2's avatar
alvinnir2
130 posts
 

I had a VPI Aries with the same tonearm, I think you are likely to not find anything comparable to what you have table and arm wise for your budget so I’d say keep them

I think a new cartridge is a great idea. Buying used is a bit of a mixed bag , you never know what you’re going to get or if the reported play hours are accurate or not. Not worth it unless it’s a great deal. The suggestion of the Hana SL is a good choice. I had the original one, not the Mark 2. It was great value for the $ and worked well on the JMW 9 arm.

I eventually upgraded it to one of the Benz Wood Micro SM cartridge that I liked way more. 6 months into ownership, the suspension collapsed. Got it replaced under warranty and that was it. 

 

I wouldn’t be too concerned with the JMW arms lack of antiskate , I never heard any degradation of sound due to the lack of it.

BTW Once I optimized my digital front end to an Auralic G2 with a Musician R2R DAC, I sold all my analog stuff and albums. The freedom to have access to all that music and explore some much new stuff with equal or better sound quality was the turning point for me. Granted my playback benefits from an all tube amplification chain and sounds just great and still very musically "analog like". Just sayin...

Heads up to Tomic601...yeh the trout should be biting well by then ,can’t wait.

bpoletti
1,563 posts
 

I have heard several VPI tables with JMW 9 arms of different generations.  All have sounded good with an Audio Technica OC9 II, III or OC9XM:.  Short of spending maybe 4X on other cartridges, it's not likely to find a better cartridge.   Ignore the earlier reports of the cartridge being bright.  It was not likely the cartridge was set up correctly. 

ghdprentice
7,952 posts
 

OP,

I am trying to be helpful here... I promise. You said, "But, it’s not about improving my streaming setup. It’s about reacquainting myself with analog." It sounds like you are implying there is a unique sound there.  If you mean the nostalgia... no problem.. great. I get it. But if you are talking about sonics.. .then, today, you can get digital that sounds like analog and analog that sounds like digital. It is all in the choice of equipment. So, if the pursuit is the best sound, then investing in only one technology will net you the best possible sound. While for decades it was thought that analog had its own sound... it was really more that solid state and digital had such great flaws that analog was preferred musically. That has gone away over the last ten years or so.

tony1954's avatar
tony1954 OP
1,262 posts
 

@ghdprentice 

I think nostalgia is part of it, but it is also comparing analog and digital. This is the first time I have had both options available to me and it's something I would like to explore a bit. It is fine to say that digital can achieve the same level as analog, but can I do that without the type of budget you have at your disposal and can I do it without having an analog system as a reference point?

ghdprentice
7,952 posts
 

OP,

 

For exploration... great. Have fun.

These days at most budget levels you can achieve parity between digital and analog for around the same investment. In the lower tiers it might require say a 20% to 50% increase in the digital side. So say $3K for analog $5K for digital because at these levels the amount of design effort and part choices to avoid the digital pitfall of cheap solid state cannot be easily avoided (but very dependent on your ability to choose components). But the level where there is a difference is dropping rapidly. Only a few years ago analog was much cheaper up to say $25K or so and vinyl ruled at the top and bottom... vinyl is getting squeezed out completely. Probably even now, with real careful research you can probably achieve parity in the $2K... I just haven’t tried recently.

I just brought this up, because of my own inclination to make my system to sound as good as possible and not divert funds on side projects. But, that’s me.

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