Johnnyb53:
I have listened to the Ayre/DPS with the two top of the line Dynavector and EMT cartridges. I chose the 2nd best EMT cartridge pretty much for the same reason I went with the modified RB250 - more than good enough (incredible, actually) performance for the $. That pretty much sums up the way I feel about the Ayre/DPS as well!
Prior to selecting the Ayre/DPS/EMT combo, I was learning pretty heavily in favor of the much less expensive Well Tempered Amadeus. That is really a remarkable turntable and tremendous sonic value for the $. But in the end, the things you heard with the Ayre/DPS - natural, relaxed, involving, musical, hard to turn off - I found all of these to be quite a bit more evident with the Ayre/DPS than they were with the Amadeus.
However, there were two things I liked better about the Amadeus - the tonearm (a thing of beauty, visually and sonically) and the bass response (marginally better than that of the Ayre/DPS).
I have listened to the Ayre/DPS with the two top of the line Dynavector and EMT cartridges. I chose the 2nd best EMT cartridge pretty much for the same reason I went with the modified RB250 - more than good enough (incredible, actually) performance for the $. That pretty much sums up the way I feel about the Ayre/DPS as well!
Prior to selecting the Ayre/DPS/EMT combo, I was learning pretty heavily in favor of the much less expensive Well Tempered Amadeus. That is really a remarkable turntable and tremendous sonic value for the $. But in the end, the things you heard with the Ayre/DPS - natural, relaxed, involving, musical, hard to turn off - I found all of these to be quite a bit more evident with the Ayre/DPS than they were with the Amadeus.
However, there were two things I liked better about the Amadeus - the tonearm (a thing of beauty, visually and sonically) and the bass response (marginally better than that of the Ayre/DPS).