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To those with multiple tables/arms/cartridges

How do you 'play' your system?
For 30 years I had only one turntable, one arm and one cartridge......and it never entered my mind that there was an alternative?
After upgrading my turntable nearly 5 years ago to a Raven AC-3 which allowed easy mounting of up to four tonearms......I decided to add two arms.
RAVEN
A few years later I became interested in Direct Drive turntables and purchased a vintage 30 year old Victor/JVC TT-81 followed shortly after by the top-of-the-line TT-101 and I designed and had cast 3 solid bronze armpods which I had lacquered in gloss black.
TT-101
By this time I had over 30 cartridges (both LOMCs and MMs) all mounted in their own headshells for easy interchange.
STORAGE

Every day I listen to vinyl for 3-4 hours and might play with one cartridge on one arm on one table for this whole day or even two or three days.
I then might decide to change to a different arm and cartridge on a the same table or perhaps the other.....and listen to the last side I had just heard on the previous play.
I am invariably thrilled and excited by the small differences in presentation I am able to hear....and I perhaps listen to this combination for the next few days before again lusting after a particular arm or cartridge change?

Is this the way most of you with multiple cartridges/arms listen?......or are there other intentions involved?
128x128halcro
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Hi Omsed,
Care to reveal the cartridge and arm you've selected?
I'm most interested....
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Hi Lew,
Have you mounted your FR-64s tonearm yet?
I don't remember hearing your opinion?
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dear Henry, There are collectors and 'selectors' of carts. I belong to the last category. There is no way to know a priori how a cart we just bought will perform. The attractive aspect of the MM carts is their price which make it possible to inspect and test many of them. To do the same with the MC carts is probably only possible for the rich among us. You own 30 + carts and ditto headshells. This is confusing to me because I thought that you are 'selective' reg. carts of both kinds. This should imply a ranking by which the primary differentiation is between 'better'- and 'lesser' one. The case in my case is that I never listen to the 'lesser one' after I made my ranking. 'Why should I?' is my point. So my guess is that you become collector while starting as selector?
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Assuming one has limited resources, as I do, isn't it likely that one thoughtfully chosen component will provide more musical pleasure (however one defines that) than two or more (necessarily) compromised components?

I audition different components when I have the opportunity. If I hear one that's an upgrade I acquire it when I can afford to. Typically, I'll sell the existing component to help fund the new one.

The idea of permanently maintaining multiple arms and cartridges (or preamps, or...) isn't even remotely tempting. Why or when would I ever choose to listen to the inferior ones? Comparing different flavors of distortion really doesn't interest me.

I suppose I'm not a true audiophile. :-(
wrm57
1,046 posts
 
Why or when would I ever choose to listen to the inferior ones?

Different presentations, different perspectives, equally valid and not necessarily inferior. Audio, especially vinyl audio, is an exercise in aesthetics, not epistemology. I'm always surprised and mildly amused by those who seem to define it as a mission to find the one truth.

I view my multiple tables, tonearms, cartridges like Kurosowa viewed reality in Rashamon: a matter of perspective, each one compelling on its own terms. Part of the fun is working with the various combinations until they realize their own coherency, they're own flawed perfection, their own best character. Then they speak on their own terms and I'm convinced by their narratives.
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