Turntables better than a Wadia 861SE w/ Statement

Check out the Nottingham table/arm conbos,really worth checking out.Especially the Space/Acespace unit at about $3K.

CAT phono stage is excellent although the gain is pretty high for some cartridges which can make volume settings a bitch with the stepped antenuator. That was my experience with an early CAT Signature, anyway.

There are better arms than that Nottingham for less money. SME is the way to go but don't buy it from the North American distributor as you'll pay TWICE as much as from other sources.

Hello Aoliviero:

When I first got back into vinyl, I spent +/- 30% of what I had into my Levinson 37 transport and Chord DAC 64. The up-side is I have not bought a CD in three years, the down-side is I have bought in the neighborhood of $1,000 in records, and have just up-graded my turntable / arm / cartridge / phonopre, for the third time.

Best regards,

Dave

Hi Aolivero,
I once participated in a friend's similar effort to "balance sources". We used an earlier version of yr pre, with a Symphonic Line amp (outstanding match with CAT and sounding similar to JL) -- AND (bingo) a Wadia 861 (i.e. an earlier version of yrs?).

TO make this long story shorter, we tried a large number of tables, all privately owned or dealer loans, mostly reasonably priced, using a Shelter 5 s.(the SAME Shelter on all TT's -- you can imagine the setting up hassle!).

1) The best digital (incl the Wadia) sounded very good, esp when NOT compared to analogue. The performance was also consistent and, of course, there's no set-up hassle, LP cleaning hassle, etc.
2) The overwhelming majority of TT were capable of better musical enjoyment than the digital.
3) Cheap vinyl reissues sounded horrible. Badly set up TT's sounded average to horrible.
4) Few cd's sounded absolutely "horrible" -- but none we tried sounded absolutely outstanding.
5) Amazingly, the TT bass was superior, as was the upper register as the TT became better engineered (also more expensive).

Many good performers from Teres, Amazon, Clearaudio (the mid-priced stuff), Scheu... priced <3-5k + cartridge, new.

The latest +10k (new) TT+arm offerings were beyond comparison; usefully, the set-up and maintenance for these TT's is also minimal/non-existant (take S. Yorke, for example; many others).

We didn't try SME, unfortunately.
We listened to classical and some blues.
Cheers

Gregm & All,

Thank you for your replies. It seems that properly set up and reasonably priced Turtable rigs can easily outperform decent digital in many ways.

Embarking on a turntable/arm combination seems very intimidating. Maybe it's because I don't have the experience here that I did on evaluating digital front-ends. My main questions are now:

1) Is there a particular area one should focus on? Turntable ? Arm? Cartridge?

2) Is getting an "all-in-one" system like the Nottingham or VPI whorthwhile? Does it limit upgradability?

3) How much should one spend to get something that is clearly better than the Wadia?

From what I've read, my short list would be below. Any recommendations?

Mid-End:

Nottingham Spacedeck/space arm
VPI Scout Master

High End:

Teres
SME
Basis
Kuzma

Cartrigges:

Shelter, 901
Zyx (not sure if gain is high enough)
Benz Micro-Glider, Wood