Changing from an XV1-S

Dcarol

Have you considered the Transfiguration Orpheus L?

I have had one installed in the latest Graham Phantom II arm for just over a year now. Coupled with a TW Raven One tt and Whest PS.30RDT 'SE', the sound from vinyl is spot-on for my tastes. I too use a CJ power amp with Karan reference MkII pre and Avalon Indra speakers.

I am not far from you in North East Hampshire, UK.

Steve

Andromedaaudio,
I'm not writing that one needs to spend $15/20K on an analog front end to get good sound. Quite the contrary. The single best dealer demo I have heard included the SME 10 table, stock arm, stock cable and a $600 Dynavector cartridge. Total cost was about $10,500. This could be had for about $5K on Audiogon, and I'm sure there are other less expensive combos which sound very good too. I simply said that I heard Madfloyd's former system with the VPI table and arm and his present system with the Raven/TriPlanar combo and "there was no comparison". The rest of the system, including the XV-1S, remained the same. I stand by that statement.

Incidentally, I believe the VPI does have a "certain level" of sound, though I don't think I was specific in my post about that. The SME table and arm have been in the market for quite some time, and I think they are excellent. Length in the market has little bearing on quality.

I agree with you that the phono amp is extremely important in getting good analog results, as is loading, set up etc.

Thom,
Thanks. Yes, I have been reading that thread and wish I could attend the demonstration. I have met a few of the people who will be in attendance. I trust their ears and experience, and look very forward to reading the opinions after the demo. I have read many good reports on the A90 and on the arms that will be heard. I trust you will have a wonderful evening.

Andromedaaudio wrote;

.....but to say the vpi does not have a "certain level" of sound i think is "a bit" far fetched , sometimes in the audiofile world , things which are cheap and already a long time on the market are considered not interesting( the tri planar is also long on the market is i know ). I have listened at dealer demos/shows to almost all the topcontenders in tables(excl SME) and cartridges and i would not say the high $ arms and tables are "much" better than what i own now.....

with vinyl there is so much info in the grooves waiting to be discovered that there are many levels of performance in tt's and arms (and cartridges and phono stages) as you go up the food chain. if you truely believe " i would not say the high $ arms and tables are 'much' better than what i now own" then you need to get out more. and that is not any disrespect toward your tt; it's a very good one and a good value....and much better than similarly priced tt's from 10 years ago. but there are tt's and arms out there that are a good deal better....one's that are dramatically better, and one's that are amazing.

the good news is that the great performance you are now enjoying can be that much better. and better cartridges have an even higher upside than you might think.

I am curious. I think that most people would tend to agree that at its price point, VPI Classic is certainly a good buy. Let say that if you have a Classic with all the upgrade option ie ring clamp, VTA tower/valhalla wire, SDS which would bring the total to around $4500-5000 (I think), if you want to upgrade from such setup to something that is clearly better, what would you get? How much would you need to spend to really improve upon the Classic?