Brinkman Balance Comparisons

Andrew, it was my pleasure having you over this past Monday. Please feel free to stop by again (and anyone else in the tri-satte area) for some music, good chat and some fine espresso!!! Let's try to get a group together for the May stereophile show???

RWD (Rick)

Cjfrbw says: "With this in mind, all of those turntables would be more or less equivalent in sound quality with minor qualitative or subjective differences."

Dgad says: "...my suggestion is that cartridges are too often judged out of context as the phono stage is part of the synergy."

I find myself agreeing with these statements. At the level of play of these very best of turntables--where all the resonance, noise and speed stability problems are pretty much resolved--the character of the sound is largely determined by the arms, cartridges, loadings, and rolling tubes in the preamp.

I disagree. It seems as though tables keep improving in precisely these areas: speed stability, pitch definition, and resonance control. Consider the new Continuum turntable or the new Walker arm, etc.

Gladstone,

Is the Continuum that good a turntable? Is the Walker? Have there been no turntables that approach what they do?? Are they so far ahead of other turntables to make a great former design sound broken? I would suggest Albert Porter chime in here about the sound of his Tape vs. LP. I think LP as a medium is limited. We can spend more money to move up the chain but at a certain level the jumps get smaller. It then makes more sense to place our money elsewhere in the chain where the audible ROI is maximized. If you sacrifice a great phono stage for a world class turntable you are not even getting close to hearing what your turntable can do.

Yes, I'm afraid it is. And re: phono stage. True. But anyone who's shelling out the dollars for a highend turntable is unlikely to skimp on the phono stage.