Calling all analog experts


Currently I'm using the entry level MMF 5 with stock goldring cartridge. Recently listened to some high end Avid and Basis tables and now feel analogically impotent. VPI, Linn, Teres, Clearaudio and Basis are all products that I'd consider. Cartridges and tonearms I don't really know much about. Like anyone I'd like to get the biggest bang for the buck and have no problem buying used . Please suggest a strategy. Other components include:

ARC LS16 MK2 preamp
Cary 306 cdp
ayre v5-x amp
Revel ultima studios
phonomenon phonostage.

Thanks,

J.
jsonic
Jsonic, you'll get a good TT anyway you go in that price range. We just have certain ideas what is the best for that price. Yes, we are biased, because we own them, but we know them well, too. I wouldn't trade my Teres for anything else near the money I have in it.
Is the Teres finicky to set up?

Can you move it once set up?

Seems to me the Linn tables are no longer in vogue from a new purchase because they are so finicky to set up and keep in play without more adjustments. They, regardless of comments here are not lower octave players...major reason for this is the open bottom box that they are collects air borne vibrations and amplifies them. Muddies up all sound when driving lower registers.

Most of the latest designs are simplifying analog with a simple suspension premise, layering materials to further break up vibration and better materials/parts, same for arms.

There is a reason Oracle and Linn are no longer a force in the TT business, there are better technologies with simplified engineered solutions.

Level it and play it, enjoy the music.
Jsonic, dope slap accepted.

You're right about CB. He won't sell you more than you want, but he may deliver more than you expect. He's done that for me twice. Thus my loyalty.

I haven't heard any TT at the $1,500 price point. Nor have I seen one whose specs, design elements and user reactions better the Teres 135. Just my observations.

Sayas,
Totally agree with everything you said. A Teres is the very embodiment of "simpler is better". Model upgrades get you better materials but the design is a constant, except for that crazy model 340.

Setup is simple. It's not quick, but only because the bearing needs 12-24 hours to seat and must not be handled during that time. The instructions on their website actually helped convince me to buy.

A Teres is not portable. There's an oil bath at the top of the bearing well that would spill over if you tilted it. Set it up where it's going to live and leave it alone.

Except for armboard angle there is nothing to adjust.

In my system the limiting factor for bass response is the 32Hz rolloff of my speakers. My TT goes lower, stronger and cleaner than my CDP.
Lest this thread turn into a total Teres lovefest,my experiences with those devices would indicate that it just isn't going to be a stock answer for every listeners taste or musical value system.
I guess that I must be missing the point of the thing as I simply don't understand all the fuss and fawning.
A general comment from an engineer with long experience in the design and testing of precision servo loops..

If you want to maintain precise uniformity of mechanical motion (such as RPM of a turntable) in spite of variable drag and/or motor torque, there are at least two ways to approach it.

The old fashoned way would be to use a massive (heavy) turntable/flywheel. Variations of torque, either due to drag variability or motor torque fluctuation will be very slow to change the RPM, and since these torque fluctuations a very brief, the RPM change is very small.

The modern way would be to use a very lightweight turntable/flywheel driven by a powerful computer-controlled motor. The motor, under control of the computer, applies the torque that, with the old approach would have been generated by flywheel inertia. In fact, the computer could simulate a flywheel much heavier than any real turntable. This approach needs a lightweight table so that its inertia doesn't "get in the way" of what the computer and motor are trying to do.

I really don't know if anyone has found it worthwhile to design a turntable using the latest technology (the market is very small) but I would warn anyone with a direct drive turntable that adding turntable mass may degrade rather than improve speed stability.

Same goes for adding extra capacitors to a regulated power supply.