$800 Cartridge Shootout and Upgrade Path

It is a simple question to answer, and can be easily proved.

Pick your favorite $5k cartridge and tonearm, and put them on a Rega 3 or some other $500 turntable. Play it.

Then put a RB250 and a DL103R($250 + $250 = $500) on a $5k turntable, and see which sounds better, musically. And, which makes more difference.

The prices are the same, but on one system the cartridge/tonearm is maximized(and turntable minimized), and on the other the turntable is maximized(and cartridge/tonearm minimized).

The question of "order of importance" will then be solved.

I'll leave the conclusions to whoever tries it.

I've done this many many times, and am 100% confident of the outcome.

Very well said, again. Too bad there are those that can't see it.

I am very encouraged by the number and by the quality of posts being made here. It tells me there is a very genuine, and perhaps spreading, interest in all things vinyl. Just look at the number of very fine quality turntables and tonearms available today, maybe that’s a strong indication of an interest in vinyl that will not die despite the proliferation of the digital format. Turntables are even being used at my daughter’s high-school dances even though CDs still predominate there. Nevertheless, it shows that vinyl is here to stay and has a good chance of growing.

I have to run now. My daughter wants to go shopping and won’t let do anything else until we do. : > (

I guess that’s what I get for being indulgent!

Like Twl said, it's easy to demonstrate and I've done exactly what he described - though mostly by accident. I ordered my Teres, OL Silver and Shelter 901 all at the same time, but the cartridge showed up first. Being as impatient as any other little kid with a new toy, I mounted the 901 on my old low-fi/mid-fi rig, an HK/Rabco ST-8.

It would be difficult to imagine a less suitable rig for a 901 than that, though I think Artar 1's friend with the Koetsu Tiger Eye Platinum/Denon DP-500MX gets the prize for most absurd pairing. At any rate, the 901 sounded damned impressive compared to the ADC XLM MkII that it replaced, duh, but only when it was mounted on the Teres/OL did it really perform near its full capabilites. On the cheap rig I wasn't hearing more than 1/3 of what the cartridge was capable of. For the few weeks until the Teres arrived, I had paid $1500 to hear $500 worth of cartridge.

The table/arm/cartridge hierarchy should not be overdone of course. Once you get to about a $4K table (Teres 265), the diminishing returns curve really flattens out. At that point your next multi-thousand $ upgrade will buy the most improvement if spent on a top quality arm. Going from a $4K Teres to a $6K Teres will be audible of course, but less so than going from a $1K arm to a $3K one. As Twl advised above, it's important to maintain balance. "Table first" does not mean "table above all else".

Salectric
Thanks for the insight. It is most helpful. Because of my budget I would be getting the PVC platter but perhaps I could stretch. I am trying to buy a turntable that I will be happy with for a loooooooong time since I am looking at going back to school and don't foresee making any money for the audio hobby for the next six years. So I am trying to upgrade my system to something I could live with for awhile. Because of the large amount of vinyl I have (and still accumulating) the analog front end is paramount. Now I'm leaning more towards Galibier.......