So the SOTA got damaged in shipping - motor assembly alignment off, pulley not level, so belt flies off. Both SOTA distributor and dealer very responsive and concerned and will fix it ASAP. But has to be shipped off again. Anyone try to fix a motor assembly themselves? Easy/hard? Meantime, I'm all set with phono stage, used LPs and raring to go. Cant wait more weeks - been about 2 months anyway - so I buy a Thorens 125 MkII with Shure cartridge (Viii) for a song on A'gon to quell the lust. It's playing now. Cripes: Vivid, organic, palpable, compelling, real, Alive!! I'd forgotten how good vinyl is - 14 years dulls the memory. It is just 3D instead of 2D - I guess a perfectly focussed, accurate 2D will always be inferior even to a slightly blurred, 3D picture - to use a visual analogy again. Well, that's what I hear on this 35 year old makeshift turntable arm and cartridge on a $7 piece of magic plastic. I've even temporally forgotten about the pain of the morrow - packing up the heavy SOTA or trying to dissemble and fix it. But the point is that the vinyl in my life has roared back with an impossible-to-ignore statement of intent, presence and even more promise. I owe you all for your encouragement.
Need to re-discover analog - please help
Like the short-sighted, lazy, modern moron that I am, I threw away all my LPs and turntable when I got hooked on my first decent CDP, a Kinergetics Platinum KD-40, 15 years ago. Because it was easier to take care of CDs. Now, my mother who was a musician, and had a classical collection of about 200 really absolutely great recordings, collected from the 1940s til the 80s, has left me her collection. They just have to be preserved, played and savored. I need an analog set-up that will a) do them justice and b) not sound noticeably "worse" compared to the digital set-up I am now used to. My analog set-up that I discarded (I know, I know.........please dont rub it in, what's done is done.) was a Denon 103D and Sony PS-800 linear tracking TT and also a Kenwood marble platter with SME tone-arm and also Denon 103 D cartridge and circa 1980 PS Audio MC phono stage.
The present system, to which must now obligatorily be added a turntable: EMM DCC2/CDSD; Atma-Sphere Line-stage MP-1 MkII, Atma-Sphere MA 2.2 modified (27 tubes each); Kharma 3.2; Indra Stealth i/cs; PAD Dominus i/cs and S/Cs (Rev C & B).
I tried MM cartridges before - Dynavector,Ortofon,Shure V15 iv - but only liked the MC Denon 103D - so would prefer that MC "sound".
I have not kept up with the analog market, nor new equipment, and am totally ignorant about the components but would greatly appreciate input as to what TT, tone-arm, cartridge and phono preamp to get that would neither bankrupt me nor do the wonderful collection my mother left me a disservice, nor my ear that is now spoiled by the pretty "good" digital, ancillary set-up I have. Nor, obviously, sound "inferior" to the CDs:)
What sort of a budget am I looking at to keep the system within the overall quality of the associated equipment that I have, without going crazy, since i will still mostly be listening to CDs (unless i get totally hooked and go bonkers..........)?
I listen to classical 90% of the time and 95% of her collection is classical.
As always, I appreciate your advice.
The present system, to which must now obligatorily be added a turntable: EMM DCC2/CDSD; Atma-Sphere Line-stage MP-1 MkII, Atma-Sphere MA 2.2 modified (27 tubes each); Kharma 3.2; Indra Stealth i/cs; PAD Dominus i/cs and S/Cs (Rev C & B).
I tried MM cartridges before - Dynavector,Ortofon,Shure V15 iv - but only liked the MC Denon 103D - so would prefer that MC "sound".
I have not kept up with the analog market, nor new equipment, and am totally ignorant about the components but would greatly appreciate input as to what TT, tone-arm, cartridge and phono preamp to get that would neither bankrupt me nor do the wonderful collection my mother left me a disservice, nor my ear that is now spoiled by the pretty "good" digital, ancillary set-up I have. Nor, obviously, sound "inferior" to the CDs:)
What sort of a budget am I looking at to keep the system within the overall quality of the associated equipment that I have, without going crazy, since i will still mostly be listening to CDs (unless i get totally hooked and go bonkers..........)?
I listen to classical 90% of the time and 95% of her collection is classical.
As always, I appreciate your advice.
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- 88 posts total
- 88 posts total