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Calling all "Vinyl Heads"

As 2003 approaches, I realize that it's time that I upgraded my turntable. Presently I have a 10 year old Roksan Xerxes with an RB300 arm and a relatively inexpensive Shure MM cartridge (I am the original owner) and I am wondering which upgrade path to take.
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has purchased or serioiusly researched a turntable in the $2000 - 3000 range fairly recently to hear about the relative merits of the equipment available in or near the price range.

I realize that I do have a few options in terms of keeping my own turntable and upgrading the arm and/or cartridge, and would also like to hear opinions on that topic. So far, the tables that have piqued my interest are Teres, Nottingham, Clearaudio, new Roksan, and Audiomeca. Of additional interest is any info regarding cabling issues with various tonearms - captive cable, din plugs, junction boxes, etc.

In terms of musical interest and sound preference, I like a neutral and realistic reproduction, and listen to a wide variety of music - literally anything except opera and thrash metal. The rest of my system consists of:

Blue Circle BC23 phono stage
Blue Circle BC3000 preamp
Blue Circle AG8000 poweramp
Martin Logan CLS IIz speakers

Thanks in advance for any input!
esoxhntr
sean
6,231 posts
 
Personally, i would probably keep your table and upgrade the arm and cartridge. If i had to choose one over the other, i would not hesitate to dump the Shure and go for another cartridge. If you wanted to stick with a simple to use MM cartridge, i'd recommend a Stanton 881S with proper loading ( NOT factory recommendations ). Your arm might be a bit heavy for this cartridge though. Otherwise, the Denon DL-103 sounds "creamier" so long as you have enough gain. Either of these cartridges will show you what you've been missing without hurting the budget in the least. Sean
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sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
I see you duplicated one of Gilbert's reference systems.
theo's avatar
theo
2,690 posts
 
Ok, here is the curve to all this. Buy a Linn Sondek LP12
start out with a base table to get into it and over the next few years go for the upgrades. Keep your RB300 to start then upgrade it later. I recommend the Incognito harness for the RB300 it is a very good upgrade available from Lauerman Audio (the importer of Rega) for approx 250.00. But a turntable is an evolution in ownership. And the Linn is a great table with many upgrades available.
The beauty is, you can forever tweek and and enhance the sound as your listening fatigues over the years. You can actually start out with a used one and completely re-build it through the years. A very good source of information is a dealer in Ft Collins Colo at audioalternative.com, he has and does rebuild these tables by the numbers.
xiekitchen
821 posts
 
The Rocksan table as I understand it is a very good table and I would keep it.I recently upgraded from a Rega P-3 to a P-9 and the difference was startling.. If I were you I'd get the arm rewired with cardas wire or comparable, get a good moving coil Benz and Benz PP1 phono pre. But everyone has their favorite.
vikkysingh
154 posts
 
I'm soret of new to the vinyl game (three years) but I think you shoudl start woith a new cart first. Nothign wrong with shure, but I think he Xerxes is a solid table and it's probably time for a new cart anyways. I recently purchased a Scout from VPI. Eventually I'll upgrade to an Aries, but for now the Scout is fine. In terms of your musical tastes I think the Aries/Scout and Clearaudio woudl be the clearest choices in terms of neutrality and tone. The Nottingham was more musical and had a fatter darker sound but I prefeed the VPI for my analog tastes. I commend you on your system choice though, I have an all Blue Circle system myself! One of these days I'll pick up a BC23, but for now the Black cube is doing quite well. Try a new cart and maybe you'l luck out and be happy~
-Vik
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