new to me turntable and preamp

03-16-09: Csw77777
And Zen, there must be something to those bellaris, those things go like hotcakes on saturday morning.

If you go with the Bellari, make sure you get a cartridge of fairly high output. For example, the Denon DL-110 would be borderline too low, but the Ortofon 2M Red or Blue should be just right.

BTW, since you were originally going to replace your Yamaha receiver, let me put in a word for the stupid-good Onkyo A-9555 integrated amp. It lists at $799 and puts out about 85/170 wpc into 8/4 ohms. If you shop around you should be able to find it for under $500. Try B&H, J&R, and Amazon for deals.

Here's the best part: it comes with a really good MM phono stage. For the past 7 months I was using the Cambridge Audio 640p phono stage into the Onkyo. It's a $189 outboard phono unit. A couple weeks ago on a whim I decided to try the Onkyo's built-in phono stage and overall, it's better. The Cambridge *may* have a tad more slam (but I'm not sure, and it's not by much), but the Onkyo phono input is loads better in richness, ambience, inner detail, and resolving "microdynamics." Between the two, the Onkyo has the more captivating and involving presentation.

So it's pretty hard to beat--a fairly powerful, very fast, resolving, high current amp with variable gain line stage, and a better built-in phono preamp than most outboards under $300. In fact, another owner (in another thread) liked his Onkyo phono stage better than a Bellari. The amp should be a good match for the Linns--this Onkyo set a new paradigm for bass resolution and clarity in my home systems.

The only caveats: you need banana plugs, bare wire, or pins at the amp end of your speaker cables, and the Onkyo needs 100 hours of break-in to sound right.

thanks for the suggestion johnny, but i got to hold off a bit on the reciever - think my wife might go crazy if i mentioned another new audio component right now, but i'll keep it in mind when i'm ready.

...reading up on the bellari, seems some have problems with the humming, but this is something that has been cleared up???
and has anyone else tried the parasound?

Bellari is better than Parasound IMHO.

I have read somewhere that a certain cartridge gives the Bellari a slight hum, I can't remember which one though. As long as the tube is good, and you should probably get a spare, and the table is properly grounded you should not have any problems with any hum. A friend has used the Bellari for years without any trouble with several different carts and It actually sounds very good.

Grado cartridges often hum a little bit (mine do but I still love the way they sound) even if the table is well grounded - apparently due to interaction with EMF around TT motor. Perhaps the Bellari accentuates this hum more than some other amps. I am not using a Bellari but ma friend absolutely loves his.