Dear Dover,
"As is always with audio it is a sum of the parts." Set that in stone. I totally agree and have operated on that principle for the last 10-15 years. A knowledgeable DIYer can dramatically improve upon almost anything commercially available. I am also not surprised that your modified Marantz blew away the Jadis.
I also agree that securing the vertical shaft of the typical VTA-adjustable tonearm with one or at best two grub screws does not make me feel good, yet its most commonly done. Even the B60 only really uses two set screws. One of the brilliant aspects of the Kenwood L07D integrated turntable/tonearm is the massive and very mass-y clamp that secures the tonearm once one has set the VTA. As regards your friend's consternation that "old stuff" sounds good, I also intentionally out-fitted my Beveridge 2SW system such that nothing upstream is less than about 30 years old, just for the fun of it. But of course I modified and upgraded almost all of the components I chose. The wheel was invented a long time ago. At first I used a Quicksilver preamp vintage about 1980-85. The circuit has many odd features, by present day beliefs, but on the other hand, the power supply is well done. One big improvement was to sub all the caps in the RIAA network with Russian silver mica caps available on eBay. And to replace the 12AU7 cathode-follower with a 12FQ7. Etc. After the Quicksilver, I moved on to a hot-rodded Klyne and a very hot-rodded Silvaweld phono stage. But this is hijacking Nikola's thread, except for the bit about set screws. Sorry, Nikola.
"As is always with audio it is a sum of the parts." Set that in stone. I totally agree and have operated on that principle for the last 10-15 years. A knowledgeable DIYer can dramatically improve upon almost anything commercially available. I am also not surprised that your modified Marantz blew away the Jadis.
I also agree that securing the vertical shaft of the typical VTA-adjustable tonearm with one or at best two grub screws does not make me feel good, yet its most commonly done. Even the B60 only really uses two set screws. One of the brilliant aspects of the Kenwood L07D integrated turntable/tonearm is the massive and very mass-y clamp that secures the tonearm once one has set the VTA. As regards your friend's consternation that "old stuff" sounds good, I also intentionally out-fitted my Beveridge 2SW system such that nothing upstream is less than about 30 years old, just for the fun of it. But of course I modified and upgraded almost all of the components I chose. The wheel was invented a long time ago. At first I used a Quicksilver preamp vintage about 1980-85. The circuit has many odd features, by present day beliefs, but on the other hand, the power supply is well done. One big improvement was to sub all the caps in the RIAA network with Russian silver mica caps available on eBay. And to replace the 12AU7 cathode-follower with a 12FQ7. Etc. After the Quicksilver, I moved on to a hot-rodded Klyne and a very hot-rodded Silvaweld phono stage. But this is hijacking Nikola's thread, except for the bit about set screws. Sorry, Nikola.