2. analog
  3. 1159990099

I could not believe it

I was happy owner of pretty decent rig (Supratek+Clayton monoblock+AA Capitole as cdp). One pretty Sunday morning I came across garage sale, guy have 20 years old Fisher turntable for sale (cheap looking extremely dirty unused for 10+ years).
I would not normaly buy it, but for $2 what the heck. I bought it for fun. It took 30 minutes of cleaning, and I connected it to phono stage of Supratek Chenin. I had some LP's at home.
To my surprise it worked. To even bigger surprise it worked so good.
I compared Dire straits and Madonna LP’s with exactly the some albums on CD.
I could not decided which I prefer (CD or LP). I really could not!
Remember we are talking about $8700 cpd and maybe in good condition $30 worth cheesy turntable. It keeps me wonder how much better would sound decent turntable ?
Classical music from Deccca, Deutsche Gramophone, Columbia Masterworks actually scared me. Resolution (there is not congestion I hear on every classic CD) smoothness really scared me. It cannot be so! I could not believe what I heard. Why for goodness sake we have ever embraced CD format, for convenience maybe, not for quality for sure?
generally sound from CD on Capitole have more body, much better bass, dynamics on some audiophile CD’s.
BMG and other normal CD are in comparison to LP’s simply unlistenable.
Classic on CD’s is especially congested and its resolution is not even close to what I heard from LP’s on cheesy Fisher turntable.
There is one but though:
a lot of surface noise especially on older LP’s.

So , analog gurus I'm rookie at the subject but believer now, please give me advice about some decent turntable which besides resolution and lack of congestion would give me even soother and even more detailed presentation, huge dynamics, wide soundstage. And would be quiet without this awful surface noise.

What Turntable would you recommend for up to $3000 used.
I read that pretty good ones are
Nottingham Space Deck w/ space arm
vpi scoutmaster with jmw-9 arm.
How does those two compare, maybe different recommendation.

PS.
I heard on CES $30.000 turntables and they have been awesome, but I have never though that actually cheap turntable could sound that good and actually stand a chance to high-end CDP and on classic beat it in spades.
sorlowski
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
I can't believe it either, because my rega planar 3 / Goldring 1042 is about equal in sound to my $1000 CD setup, with neither being a clear winner.

I have found a good cleaning to be the most effective way to reduce surface noise, so if your LPs are very noisy you might want to factor a cleaning machine into your budget.
tfkaudio
589 posts
 
Welcome to the club. Anyone who thinks that CD performance, or even SACD/DVDA performance, can come close to vinyl is just off their rocker. The more vinyl you listen to, the harder it is to listen to CD. I still listen to CD, but usually because I'm too tired to clean a record or I think I'll fall asleep and I don't want to leave my player spinning for hours in the inner groove (bad for cartridge life and TT motor). And therein lies the answer to why CD took over... convienence. No cleaning, no flipping sides, smaller package, no need to know how to maintain a turntable. etc. etc....

Both tables you've mentioned are fantastic. Rega and Linn also make great tables, as do Michell, Sota, and Avid. Funk Firm is a rising star and their new line is supposed to be very good.

I am a ScoutMaster owner, and IMHO it is the price-performance leader today.

PS - a record cleaning machine like the VPI 16.5 is a necessity for serious forays into analog. Budget for it.

Cheers.
mjw55
82 posts
 
The Nottingham and VPI are pretty hard to beat! I have the Nottingham myself, but pair either TT with a good cartrage and you're off to the races. Welcome to the club (Analog that is).
plato
1,543 posts
 
I have a Michell Orbe SE with a Wilson Benesch arm and Shelter 501 II cartridge. I also did a fixed-suspension mod on it.

The bass detail is unbelievable, better than any other source I've heard, and the layering and dynamics are very impressive. That said, my much less expensive CD sources sound quite good too. I find that each format has its own particular strengths and weaknesses.

In a perfect world, everyone would be using advanced reel-to-reel tape decks... But this world is far from perfect so choose your set of compromises and party on.
More to discover