Turntables better than a Wadia 861SE w/ Statement

I have never heard a top-notch CD player but I have no desrie to. My vinyl satisfies all the sonic needs I have for a fraction of the price.

For your price, you have the sky as your limit! Here's some ideas:

1. VPI Black Knight/JMW 10.5/Loricraft RCM/ZYX Airy 3
2. Teres 320/Morch UP-3/VPI Hw 16.5/Denon 103R
3. VPI Scoutmaster/JMW-9 Signature/DynaVector 17D2/SDS/Loricraft RCM
4. VPI Hw19-Mk IV/SDS/SAMA/TNT-5 Bearing and Platter/Wheaton Tri-Planar/Shelter 901/Loricraft RCM

...the sky is the limit.

Marty

Thank you for your suggestions Marty.

I have been hearing great things about the ZYX Airy 3. Does anyone know what the price and output are.

Also, based on the feedback in this thread, I plan to spend more in the 5K range for TT/Arm/Cart.

I believe there are four variants of the ZYX Airy 3: low (.24mV) output, high (.48mv) output, and your choice of silver ("S") or copper ("X") coils. The US distributor is Sorasound, search ZYX here on Audiogon. The current price seems to be $2,300.00. I have no experience with these cartridges but personally I'd be dubious about the wisdom of mounting any $2K+ cartridge on a $3K table & arm combination.

Greenman.

Good info. I finally found the Sorasound web-site. Good info. Actually, the prices may be even higher!

Any knowledge of the ZYX R-100 ($995) or the Benz Glider II ($795)?

Thanks,

Well out of all the players in the 1000.00 to 5000.00 range, WADIA is by far my favorite, super smooth 4 volt output on the RCA's vs. the standard 2 volt machines, built way beyond what you could imagine for a cd deck to be, and it is the fullest body sounding unit with the most real sound stage, okay the soundstage is not real it actually sounds double the size it should be, my room went from 8 ft to 20 ft ceilings :)... and truth is I turn on my turntable and can't believe it could get better, but then the wadia warms up after about an hour of use and it is astonishing at how truly analog it sounds but with more weight and of course Bass is top dog out of the wadia but anyone will tell you that, but they are very powerfull sounding CD players, very open and very in your face, most dvd players sound a little rolled off and like you are in the 12th row, but the Wadia is very upfront, like you are standing on stage, could be good for some, could be bad for others, its all in your taste but mine is perfect for me, and It replaced a 3000.00 dollar universal, Yep SACD and all but the Wadia stomped it, I left SACD since and have completly invested in Redbook and Vinyl ...

So for me the beatles and like zeppelin on vinyl are best, but for some other music CD's are better. So I guess you can't really say a turntable is better for everything.

P.s. the Wadia plays Killer tunes even when a bad disc is thrown at it, scratched, MP3, CdR's anything I can think of is flawless.