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Turntable--Cartridge for the Rogue Audio Cronus

My brain is going crazy, spinning between Rega P-3-24/TTPSU, Rega P-5, SOTA Comet, VPI Scout.....Rega Elys II, Ortofon 2M Bronze, Rega Exact II, Dynavector 10x5, Grado Ref. Sonata, Benz-Micro ACE S H, etc., etc. Since, like most of you, I live in an area where analog auditioning is impossible and I must rely on long-distance purchase.....what should I do ? My budget is $ 1500-1800 for a new analog front end, and I'm really confused. I want to plug in to my Rogue's built-in MM phono stage, and really enjoy my 200+ jazz LP's. Please click on my system, check it out, and give me some sound advice (no pun intended). Thanks to all, and Happy Thanksgiving !!
adam18
joey54
434 posts
 
I would suggest you look at the Marantz TT 15 turntable. It is basically a beefed up Clearaudio Emotion turntable and for $1595 list, includes a great MM cartridge. Check it out at Music Direct.
learsfool
1,215 posts
 
I would highly recommend the Rega P5/Exact 2 combo, that's what I went with, and many retailers will give you a discount on the cartridge because you are buying the table. Get the TT-PSU, too, it makes a big difference.
ihcho's avatar
ihcho
612 posts
 
If the difference of prices are negligible among those turntables, I would go for one which has the highest resale value. For that, I would choose Sota Comet.

One caveat: One of my friends has Sota Comet and I have Clearaudio emotion and Thorens TD145MKii. We have tried many combination to tell the difference among them, but we could not determine which was noticeably better than others even though there were subtle differences. Though I believe that somebody who has better ears and more experiences may be able to tell more about the differences.

My friend has McIntosh MC275, PrimaLuna Prologue preamp, Audio Electronics PH-1 phono preamp, Klipsch LaScala and Velodyne subwoofer.
My system is Linn AV5105, Rogue Magnum 99 with phono, Yaqin MS-12B phono preamp, Tyler Taylo 7U.
Cartridges used for comparison are Grado Gold and Clearaudio classic cartridge.
adam18 OP
670 posts
 
Hi Ihcho...............Which arm is on the SOTA Comet ? The RB-250 or the RB-300 ? From what I understand, SOTA offers the table with a choice of arms. Also, any "hum problems" with the Grado pick-up on either table ?
ihcho's avatar
ihcho
612 posts
 
RB-300.
Little bit of hum on Grado with my friend's Sota, but Clearaudio aurum classic gives less hum. He uses aurum classic now and he likes it better than Grado.
My Clearaudio emotion (actually, bluemotion) is currently with Grado. Hum is less than on Sota, and I really don't hear much difference between Grado gold and aurum classic.
A good thing about Grado is that the stylus is much easier to replace and you can find it cheaper, sometimes less than $100, while you have to spend $160 on aurum classic.
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