Moving into vinyl. Brinkman, TW Raven, GrandPrix??

Thanks for your response. I do know is an expensive and time consuming part of hifi.

My comment about digital losing its appeal was maybe a bit to drastic. I basically meant that from the people I know that use vinyl, they all prefer the turntable sound over the sound of their CD player.

I don't have enough comparison but I like the sound of my CD a lot, but then, I'm (think many with me) always looking for improvements.

With respect to phono stages, there are 2 currently that has my main interest, it's the Boulder phono and the Lyra Connoisseur.

I'm extremely curious how for instance a Brinkman Balance with Breuer tonarm with a Boulder/Lyra phono would compare to a DCS Puccini/Scarlatti.

Maxx1973...i have not heard any of the tables you have listed but at that price point, I would not purchase anything without auditioning in advance multiple times!! The TW Acustic tables are distributed only by Jeff Catalano at Highwatersound in NYC and so if you are in the area, you should set up some time with Jeff to audition the Raven AC ($14Kish without tonearm). Jeff suggests the Graham Phantom and or Triplanar arms on the Raven AC, which gets you to the $20K range. The Black Night is closer to $40K I believe so that is twice the price of the Grand Prix and the Brinkmann table, both of which are in the $20K range. Do you have dealers that can audition the Brinkmann and Grand Prix tables for you? It's all good getting Agoners advice but at this price point you should be hearing the tables for yourself (multiple times) to really evaluate their strengths and capabilities before deciding on which table to purchase. The other table in this price range that make sense to audition is the Basis 2800. Good luck.

I think, you should try to listen to some Turntables and get a own impression. The pricing of turntables (above) have absolutely no connection to brain, science and performance. A 20k table is not better than a 8k table when that one is made better. Most owners want to believe that their 20k investment (with a nice rebate of course) was done right. The main reason, why such threads are always coming up again and will never end.
It depends on the customer, it is like being in a small boat in the sea, one day the wind is from this direction, the next day from that direction...
You can read the technical papers from Basis, it shows that knowledge, science and precision can be important :-), some think different.
It is a long journey...

Sorry wasn't aware that the Black Night was that much more expensive. I guess the Raven AC would be more towards the money I would be able to spend.

Off course I will try to listen to the tables as well, but I like the advise of the A'gon people to make a upfront selection and in order to get an idea which table would probably suit me. Same goes for tweaking since I read some tables require much more "maintenance and tweaking" then other.

The Brinkman with Breuer and Raven AC with Graham Phantom both seem proven set-ups which work well. Wonder what difference in sound they have.

I listened to the Raven AC with Graham arm once and thought the sound was good, but no "wow factor". Saying that, the rest of the system saw only so-so, therefore it probably wasn't a fair judgement to base my opinion on.

Just today I use the Search feature on the Gon's home page and got to a TW-Acustic Raven One, brass arm board, a Graham Phantom MKI and then a WSS Silver Phono Cable $7200.00 obo.

Brinkmann LaGrange with one year warranty Ad, but it does't have an arm included. P.S. There is a Brinkmann Tube Power Supply available. Check to see if it works with this Brinkmann. It is the sexist speed controller I've ever seen and makes Brinlmann TT's sound even better. Add your favorite arm.

Both are wonderful tables and are 95%title TT's as compare to the absolute best. They sound more a like than radically different.

If you buy either brand your TT's life time needs would be solved.