Clearaudio Innovation [Wood] vs Master Innovation

Innovation wood is fantastic Turntable, I had one with 9 inch Universal Tonearm and Davinci v2cart.--- then urge and quest to upgrade it to some thing better Perhaps MI, or  Jubilee reference, looked at forums, called dealers   and  God father Surroundings. I did not get any definite answer, most people stated it is aside move, "If you want to upgrade innovation, put  the best CA cart ,New Unity Tone arm, silver vs copper wire, Din vs RCA even MS had no definitive answer, MY cool contact stated he is  using Unity TA on Ovation Turntable. Other AA forum Boss told me  ,he is a CA dealer and owns Innovation TT and he did not notice much improvement,, he recommended to just buy a new 12 K cart for jazz/acoustic.

Now I believe him as I traded in  innovation to buy MI and played  few records, May be back ground little quiet, but on Blind test I would not have been  able to tell the difference.

I have more platters moving arounds, All the fancy words, more mass, but it still the belt and Pulley design with sensor.

I had to get a professional, to set it up for correct configuration using lin magik software,

Sorry for long winded post, Perhaps it will help some one who is looking to upgrade Innovation TT. I purchased a Black MI with Jubilee MC cart/univeral 9" RCA plugs(new)

My other stuff is AR tube amps/preamp/phono  with Cardas CB cables and Focal Scala V2 speakers.

@syd7865 Your system is rather different from mine, so we may have different experience with the Innovation and Master Innovation. I don't care for the sound of CA cartridges. I had Talisman V2 originally with my Ovation, and went to Concerto V2. Years ago I moved on, first to Dynavector XV-1s (which I still have) and two Lyra Atlas Lambda (SL + Mono) that I use now on 12" Universal.

I have heard the Master Innovation in the past when Musical Surroundings brought one to my dealer for a demo weekend. I was very impressed, which is why I have wanted one since. 

My system otherwise is Boulder 1108 phono + Naim 252/300DR with Dynaudio Confidence C2 Platinum speakers and REL S/510 sub array.

As an update to this thread, I got my Innovation Master earlier this week. It's really pretty amazing, and not a disappointment in any aspect. The improvements are everything I expected. Lower noise floor, greater resolution of inner details, enhanced and more accurate soundstage, and vastly improved bass refinement. And more!

I'm still waiting for an HRS rack for the turntable and an isolation base optimized for it. 

@dwette 

Congrats!  Looks superb. I can only imagine the sound quality. I’m not ready to upgrade my innovation wood to Master, but you do tempt me!

Congrats again and enjoy.

Best,

@mgrif104 I think the upgrade from Wood to Master is a lot more significant than my previous upgrade from Ovation to Wood, and so it should be. 

The MI is a real beast though. 143 lbs fully laden with tonearms, record weight and outer ring. I have to disassemble it to move anything. Even changing a belt requires removing the top POM platter and SS subplatter, at a minimum. It';s all very well worth it though. I'm in heaven.