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
Dear Halcro,
why are we talking about limiting? The word limit itself is something I do very hard in most life environments. Maybe better: Take it to the limit... vroom!
Sonnyboy, I thought in the same way and wrote accordingly.
So you either missed my post or you don't like my humor.
I hope the first mentioned possibility was the case. However
I also omitted the contributions from some Mexican.
Limits? In the words of William Blake: "the bounded is loathed by its possessor."

And besides, "you never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough."
A question for Syntax.....
Do you think that your ability to decide on the one turntable, arm. cartridge and phono-stage perfect for you.....had anything to do with having several turntables and many arms and cartridges in your own system to compare?

Yes and No
At the beginning I had the typical review winner System, I was proud being a modern Audiophile. But short after that I met a record collector who demoed me his system and I was totally confused. His was different from hardware and was sounding light years better. So we started talking and he taught me what is responsible for what....
The next big step was in the following 10 years when I travelled a lot to listen to Audiophiles privately, here I learned the most, what I would like to have or to try, and what not. Later it was narrowed with Audiophiles who also had 2 turntables, 2 identical Arms, carts....and we made the comparisons and when you do it right, you have to be honest to you, there is a big difference between "I like it" and "That Design is better"...
But no matter what I made, there always was that question mark of "Is that Arm/cart I don't have better than that I have?"
Well, I always try to understand what a unit can do. There are no wonders from outer space. It is brain. Nothing else. And some Designers are better than others. Marketing can hide that very successfully but my own comparisons showed me that week for week. And when a 8k cartridge is absolutely inferior in comparison to a 2k cartridge, then there are only 2 ways: To deny that, or to think about that.
(Sorry, there is a 3. way: I spend so much money and that one has to be better and honestly, I don't care anyway)
After all those years I asked me at the end of each month "With what units did you listen the most time? AND WHY?"
I found the answers.
And the final question was "Why should I spend my time listening to something which is not as good as the other stuff I have?"
My time of doing nothing, sitting in a sofa, looking into the nothing between 2 speakers is the most valuable time I can waste.
I want to do the best with it.
Wrm 57, We need clear answers not riddles. Say: the limits
of my bank account for example.