@gano Sorry, it took me so long to get back to your comments (its been a wacky week for me).
You have given me a lot to think about. I will take my time and continue to sort through ideas and your suggestions and ponder things over. I may be overthinking this (I often do, its a character attribute that is both a blessing and a curse. I would like to hope that Gano’s observation in his first post is true, that any $1500-$2500 turntable will sound awesome. If true, I really cannot ho wrong because my turntable bar was set pretty low previously.
@dynacohum To answer Dynacohum’s question, yes I do think my room is on a concrete slab. While my room is carpeted, the adjoining rooms have hardwood floors that are glued down and there is zero give in the floors (compared to all the nailed wood floors I have previously encountered. I am thinking they were glued because there is concrete below rather than a wooden sub floor to nail to. I really don’t know for sure though. My room is a repurposed family room at the back of the house that has built in shelving for a tv and vcr (house built in 89) that is directly behind my listening position. The room was originally designed to have seating along the sides of the room and people to look sideways to the front of the room towards the fireplace, and sideways to the back of the room to watch tv. Now that built in is perfect for a turntable sitting in the tv hole (think old school 36” tv) and the shelf below designed for the vcr is perfect for a phono stage. What is really nice is that it is behind my listening position and opposite the speakers and electronics. Because it is built into the wall and floor and designed to hold those old super heavy tv’s, it is a great place to place a turntable to keep it from getting vibrations because it is built really solid. In the time I used my victrola stream carbon (before it died), I cannot recall even one instance of human activity (like footfall or my brother’s children jumping around even when near the turntable for instance) being picked up by the turntable, which shows how solid it really is. It’s possible this could change with a new table, but I wouldn’t expect it since the old one was hardly a standard bearer.
I have a couple follow up questions:
How much character do you believe there really is in the table/arm alone at similar or somewhat similar price points for tables? I mean, obviously, better tables are better at rejecting vibrations than budget ones, but how much flavor does a table/arm add if cart and phono pre are the same? For example, how much different do you believe a Rega P8 will sound to a Michell Tecnodec or Gyro SE or VPI Prime X with the same cartridge and phono stage? Are there major differences to be had here? There seems to be a lot of inconsistency on this point out there. And do the direct drive Technics tables really sound fundamentally any different from belt drive? Again, there seems to be a lot of inconsistency on this point.
Has anyone here ever compared different tables with same cart and phono stage side by side? If so, was your experience?
@fatdaddy2 While in principle it could make sense to work with a dealer, my location in a middle sized city in the middle of the midwest makes it challenging, but worth investigating. I just historically had a hard time in those places because they tend to have few options and tend to tell you what they do have is perfect for you. This will be doubly true with turntables since they won’t have many. While it does make sense to listen, a demo in another room in another system with another cartridge (probably) has limited value, and any in home demo will come with more pressure than I probably want, and I am already wincing at the pitch for cables, interconnects, and power conditioners that will ensue…
The other way to look at this is, it may not even matter. If any flavor would be enjoyable, it may not be necessary to fully comprehend the others to enjoy one. Perhaps I should be looking to buy on appearance and/or value proposition of buying opportunity instead of attempting to ascertain a house sound?