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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
thuchan
1,009 posts
 
Oh Lewm, come on you with many tables, arms and carts is asking such a question :-) of course it is about the combination of all, tables are part of the game. Or did I misread something?
Complexity is a rather complex issue... so most people tend reducing complexity which obviously makes life easier. The downside is you will never experience some "On Top Issues" like I did when experimenting with the Cooperhead and Cobra arm. As these arms are not really user friendly for changing carts they provide a pretty fine soundstage with a good cart like the Olympos or Goldfinger v2. It is so different you need to hear it.
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dear Lew, The right expression for the first part of your
thesis is the somehow conservative looking: 'the proudness
of ownership'. The justifying part is for the married omong
us and probably for the Weber's protestants and Marx Marxist.
manitunc
795 posts
 
What easier way is there to compare cartridges than to mount two arms on one table with identical arms and play them both at the same time, switching between inputs to hear them each play the same album, seconds apart. Maybe some of you have a good enough memory to wait to change cartridges between plays, but not me. So, I can have arm to hold my main cartridge, and the other to hold any contenders for the throne. Or one stereo and one mono. Or one MM and the other MC. or whatever other foolishness my heart desires. And still take up only the space of one table.
lewm
13,403 posts
 
Dear Henry, Perhaps I was thinking of the lyric from "I've grown accustomed to her face", Henry Higgins' lament from My Fair Lady:

"Her joys, her woes
Her highs, her lows
Are second nature to me now
Like breathing out and breathing in
I was serenely independent
And content (with one turntable) before we met
Surely I can always be that way again
And yet
I've grown accustomed to her look
Accustomed to her voice(s)
Accustomed to her face(s)."

Which is why I don't think I can go back to one turntable, even though I was satisfied with one turntable all my life until 4-5 years ago. You may as well ask Casanova why he needed so many women.
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dear Manitunc, This may be the easy way to compare two carts but I have no problem at all to compare two carts after each other on the same tonearm. I have no idea how
'long' our musical memory is but 5 -6 minutes needed to change the carts will not 'disturbe' our memory. That is exactly what I deed today. Comparing Miyabi Standard with the Kiseki Goldspot in my FR-64s. I have a pritty good idea what the differences are.
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