How Much Is TOO MUCH for a Analog front End?

For us working Joe - $10-15K should get you there close to Nirvana. Ridiculous table like the Continuum Caliburn is just that - plain ridiculous. For the money, the Teres 340 with the Verus drive is an excellent choice and great value; throw in the Graham Phanthom or Triplanar VII and a Lyra Titan and you are there; I was plenty happy with that combination for a long while till i found my custom TT with the Kuzma Airline.

The Schroeder i am sure is very good but not worth the wait and i don't think can beat the Air bearing tonearm. Also, once you heard a good mass-loaded Turntable (i am sure to get some hate mail now), the VPI or Oracle is NO match !!

So to answer your question, how much is TOO MUCH - well it depend on your pocket book but anything above $30-40K is too much in my opinion...

Not too long ago I went from a very respectable table setup that was tweeked to sound much better than stock.

I went to a Raven One/Graham Phantom (using the same cart I had on the old table).

A fanastic analog front end is the best purchase I could have made. I will most likely never upgrade (Unless I suddenly came unto a ton of money)because the amount I would have to spend to significantly better that system is just way out of range. Sure I'll consider a better cart, possibly an SRA stand, who knows possibly even upgrading to the stand alone motor, but not the table and arm. I believe the level of improvement from a top end analog front end is so profound, that the results would be audible even on a mid fi system!

Now I'm not suggesting someone drop a $10K turntable/arm onto a $5K system, but I think even a modest $10K system would sound that much better with a $10K table/arm - even with a cheap cart!

The cart can always be upgraded down the road, but you would have the building block of a reference system. I doubt that many of us here who actively play LP's wake up thinking "damn I should have just kept my old table."

Not to start any wars, but if your were thinking of dropping $10K on a digital front end, I would not have the same advice for you. In fact I'd tell you to probably get a $1000 PS Audio Dac driven from a computer or perhaps their new $1500 transport.

Analog is mature, fantastic sounding, and a top rig can easily keep you happy for the next 15 years or more while the rest of your system evolves.

And believe me, I am by no means loaded.

If you are going to consider going to that level, a much more audible improvement can be had by a different route for your LP playback. Get someone to upgrade the resisitors your phono section; This is completely independent of the brand, how much it costs, etc, since there are NO manufacturers out there that are doing the entire signal path all with Vishay resistors. They are not cheap (I guess its relative........they are compared to the 5 figures you are considering for a new table), but will give you resolution you never even knew existed on the LP. They also lower the noise floor a ton.

John

Braab, There seem to be various views on the best way to mount components, from very rigid to not rigid. On another forum (the crooked path) there has been an ongoing thread about this. One person - a recording engineer who has obviously spent a lot of time and work on setting up his room and system - believes that ground vibrations are a main culprit in degrading sound. Therefore, do NOT strive for rigidity from the component to the ground. He recommended the pneumatic idea, in addition to which he uses a type of ball bearing assembly under components. The pneumatic aspect takes care of the vertical vibration while the ball bearings allow the energy from the lateral vibrations to disipate harmlessly. I haven't tried the bearings yet but will. And, by the way, he especially believes that isolating digital components this way is beneficial. But just using the tube under my TT has - I do believe - improved the performance noticeably. I think this works. The bearings idea is still theory to me, yet to be tested.

12-28-07: Braab8
Johnny
I have not heard of this from VPI I must research.

Here's a closeup picture of the feature, and here it is on the VPI Super Scoutmaster Reference Turntable. Supposedly it'll be available separately as an add-on option, but details are sketchy. It's shown and listed as a separate add-on in MusicDirect's hard copy catalog, but it had no determined price and few details at that point.