Best set-up for up to 9k retail?

Oh, man you gotta realy-realy love Linn to speak for it like Brookwood!

I do not attack rather than personally loving something Linn-ish but with more detail blended with music...

I'm also someway skeptical to highly priced tonearms and would still much more spend on table/cartridge. There is not too much sonic difference I heard between Michell Orbe/Kuzma Stogi and Michell Orbe/SMEIV with the same Helikon cartridge. Wilson Act.5 is also excellent budget tonearm that will work magics even with mega-priced decks. Tonearm to me, if above $1k has the smallest diminishing return in analogue playback.

Twl,
I'm skeptical to Teres! Even despite I fully believe you that it's a nice deck in general simply by the same reason you're skeptical to Volvare. I also know that not too many nice-guy dealers left to realy do a great demo job with analogue. First, it's obvious that no dealer will allow customer to play with $9...10k analogue setup and must play it himself. Second, swapping tonearms requires VTA, tracking force and other neccessary adjustements to be made to demostrate the difference(truly pain!).

That's alright Marakanetz. I understand. It is a very good deck, though. I've heard alot of decks, arms and carts.

I don't necessarily love the Linn, however it is better than many of the new ones that are much more expensive. I guess I have become diinshcanted with some of the new tables that look cool but don't sound any better.

I also have to go back to my other commnet. Because I have used and sold many of them, I can tune a Linn to get the results I want. (I would like to say optimum results, but that sounds a little overconfident) I am also so familiar with it that I don't have to ask is it the catridge, the arm or the table. Maybe I am getting lazy?

I love analogue, but I have to admit to a steady transiton to digital. CD's on Avantgarde speakers sound very good!

Marakanetz, I can only relate the comparisons that I am aware of. I have not compared to SPJ LaLuce. But the Teres 255 has been compared to the Clearaudio Master Reference on 2 occasions, and has beaten that on both occasions, in the ears of the listeners. It has been tested against Verdier La Platine and found to be about a tie on at least 2 different comparisons. On one comparison I know of, it was tested against a Walker Proscenium and was very close, and the Walker had a better cartridge. So by now I guess that it is apparent it is in a very high class of turntables. I am not saying that it is the very best, but I do say it is competitive with the very best, and costs far less, so I promote it as a very good value. If I were to guess, I'd say it will beat the SPJ LaLuce, because the SPJ has primarily acrylic construction. This is a problem and gives poorer detail and bass response compared to other materials. I found this out first hand when I had my Teres acrylic-base 135, and then upgraded to the wood/lead shot loaded 245 base. This may also be one reason why the Teres beats all the Clearaudio TTs. After hearing the difference between acrylic and other base materials, I cannot recommend acrylic bases. Again, I am not saying that Teres is the ultimate. I am saying that it is close enough to the ultimate so that you would never need to upgrade and it could be your last table. Especially since it is so reasonably priced. As far as arms on the Teres are concerned, it is very easy to use any type of arm on it. It has alot of adjustability for rotation and position of the armboard, and can accept any arm. Even ET-2.5 and other air bearing arms will work quite easily. There is no suspension, so sagging springs are not a problem when using heavy arms like the ET. In fact, it sounds real good with an ET-2.5. I use an OL Silver arm. Many are used with OL modded Rega 250. Graham is also popular with Teres owners. You can pick whatever you want, and it works great. I like the OL arms, but it would accept Kuzma arms just fine. No problem.