Calling all analog experts

Twl:

I knew that it'd only be a matter of time before your welcome advice would materialize. My dealer says that when making an investment in a high end tt it's best to buy from a company that's been around for a while (of course he doesn't sell Teres) and has a track record. Teres tables are beautiful although I've only seen pictures. I don't know anyone who has one and can't imagine where I could even listen to one. I live in Northern N.J. They aren't cheap and I don't often see used ones offered for sale. My dealer sells Avid, Clearaudio Basis and possibly VPI. What are your opinions on Linn and Nottingham? I appreciate your input and BTW am happy for you regarding your new career. Congrats!

Jsonic,

Good advice from all the above. I'll echo Twl's advice with the unseemly enthusiasm of a new Teres owner. Clearly there's some risk in buying from a younger company, but the performance advantages overwhelmed those concerns for me. FWIW, Chris Brady addresses reliability and service quite well on his website.

You didn't mention a budget, but if $1500+ is available for a table I don't think you will match a Teres. Come listen to mine in CT and you'll know why used ones are so rare. OTOH, if you're more comfortable in the mainstream many say Nott' offers great bang for the buck.

Teres, OL and Shelter all provide superior performance while controlling costs by avoiding the mainstream distributor/dealer/big magazine ad channels. If you're able to accept that risk, the musical rewards will be higher.

YMMV of course. Enjoy the hunt and whatever prey you find!

Jsonic, I would say that although the Teres only has about a 3 year track record, the track record it has consists of beating the holy crap out of anything in its price range. The dealer has to say something, and he can't sell the Teres, so there you are.

I think you should take up Doug's offer to listen to his Teres.

Regarding your question about Linn and Nottingham, I've owned several variations of Linn LP12 turntables and several Linn arms and cartridges. I was happy with a Linn for more than 10 years. I am also a trained Linn setup technician, but am out of date now, as I did this mostly during the 1980s. My Teres is in a totally different(and better) league than the Linn. The Nottingham tables are quite good, and good value for money. I might say that they could be a 2nd choice for me, if Teres wasn't around, for the money vs performance.

I think statements like "it beats the holy crap out of anything in its price range" are more than a bit of exageration. I have heard the Teres, in fact Doug was generous enough to allow me to listen to his, which, while it cetainly had some margin of performance over my Michell Gyro SE and Shelter 501 did not "beat the crap out of it" whatever that is supposed to mean. I think the base was the biggest difference that I noticed. It was more more defined with the Teres with plucked base strings being more precisely articulated in the pieces we listed to. Of course, Doug also has the excellent B&W Nautilis 803's compared to my Matrix 804's which will have something to do with good base. One the other hand, his system cost twice mine which does not mean mine will only give half the quality of sound. In my experience the marginal return in sound quality for each additional dollar invested is 10 to 15% at this level. So double the price and you may get 10 to 15% better sound. The Teres vs. my system seemed to fit this to my listening. Of course, this improvement can be very important to you compared to its cost - that is all a matter of personal taste and priorities.
The Teres, like all the TT's mentioned above is well worth a listen but it would perhaps be more usefull to those evaluating if more precise and accurate terms were used to describe the TT differences.

Responses like these are why I love Audiogon. Objective opinions from the well-informed are rare. Jyprez: What is the cost differential between your rig and Doug's? Doug I live near the Tappan Zee Bridge and CT. is not that far ,depending on what town that is. I may very well take you up on your generous offer when time allows. My system uses the Revel Studios so I think a hi end analog rig would reap big dividends. In percentage terms I'm sure most of these tables would be a 60-80% improvement over the MMF5 I'm currently using. TWL , my phonostage is the phonomenon. I'm guessing this wouldn't do for one of the higher end tables we're speaking of. What would a rig like this cartridge ,arm, phonostage ,set-up cost? Thanks to all of you for your input.