Turntable shopping.. any help?

[deacongreg]

It would be great, Andrew, if you did get your hands on the new Mcintosh turntable. So we can find out what it sounds like.

Now, I`ve never had the opportunity to hear the revered and well respected Linn Sondek 12 with all its many iterations.

However, The Sota Cosmo`s is another story. What a great sounding table. Whether a moving coil or moving magnet cartridge, it sounded great all the time. Now, this was a while ago, but the memory remains clear.

[kennyt]

Well,

This keeps going.....

I have heard nothing but raves about the Avid TT's, and just spent the better part of an hour discussing options with musicdirect, their US importer, I think I'd be best served by buying something to keep me happy. I worry that buying an 'entry' table will just leave me wondering why I got into this in the first place, and ultimately be counter productive.

Unfortunately tis brings me to the $6-10K range for a TT........

Still considering what to do, and likely will get the roof fixed before I buy it, but it's getting interesting.

[deacongreg]

Sounds reasonable to me kenny. You do want to get a very good turntable, while you can, if you are going to put your foot in the water. Now, Avid is definitely up there in price. But, I think we talked about this before, if memory serves, but VPI makes a great line of turntables. And allows an upgrade path.

So with VPI, you don`t necessarily have to go wild initially at pricing.

But yes, DO THE ROOF~~

[kennyt]

Well, several hours on the phone and I think I have it resolved......

I am going to add a side part to my AudiAV Crystal rack for the TT, phono-preamp and a good two channel pre.

I am thinking of going with;

Avid Sequel TT
SME IV arm
Dynavector XX Mk2 cart
Sim Audio LP5.3 phono preamp

Yeah, I know, not a cheap rig by any means of the imagination.... But I suspect if I am not happy with this setup, I shouldn't be in vinyl!

It will take a couple weeks at least to get the rack made and then get the TT set up and shipped, so I should be rocking this rig by mid July if all goes well. Somehow, as always, I went well into 5 figures for this venture.

I'll keep you posted as things progress, and for the mean time, I am off to shop for vinyl.... once the stores open!

[deacongreg]

kenny,

That, my friend is excellent. Shopping for vinyl. Brings back very good memories. Let me know what you picked up!!

Yes, like usual, you almost broke the bank on your turntable rig. You should be very happy. Unless, you are one of those that are very sensitive to different sounding cartridges. I was not, like that. I could hear differences, but not enough to go crazy on it.

Yes, I`ll be looking forward to hearing from you once everything is setup and installed.

[jbk]

Originally Posted by kennyt

Well, several hours on the phone and I think I have it resolved......

I am going to add a side part to my AudiAV Crystal rack for the TT, phono-preamp and a good two channel pre.

I am thinking of going with;

Avid Sequel TT
SME IV arm
Dynavector XX Mk2 cart
Sim Audio LP5.3 phono preamp

Yeah, I know, not a cheap rig by any means of the imagination.... But I suspect if I am not happy with this setup, I shouldn't be in vinyl!

It will take a couple weeks at least to get the rack made and then get the TT set up and shipped, so I should be rocking this rig by mid July if all goes well. Somehow, as always, I went well into 5 figures for this venture.

I'll keep you posted as things progress, and for the mean time, I am off to shop for vinyl.... once the stores open!

Kenny,

I like the BlueCircle BC 707 phono preamp, VPI Scoutmaster turntable with a Koetsu Black Cartridge. Really nice big sound stage with extended frequencies and no coloration.

Here's a link to the Blue Circle review:

http://www.ultraaudio.com/equipment/...rcle_bc707.htm

The VPI ScoutMaster has a nice upgrade path and their customer support is great( my experience). You can start out with a reasonable setup and go nuts upgrading. Plus if you hate it then it has great resale value on Audiogon....

Another thing to consider are the interconnects you will be using between the turntable to phono preamp to the preamp.

We're dealing with really small electrical signals so sheilding is a consideration.

Hovland and Graham make some really good interconnects for your proposed analog setups.

I'm using Chimera Advantage II interconnects that are really nice. Sold direct. I let a friend audition a pair of mine and he bought some...

Just some of my thoughts.