Anyone hear technics tt and vpi scoutmaster/Aries?

I've always felt that jazz is the Technics' strong suit. I like it for pretty much anything, but jazz so often relies on really accurate speed to sound "right." I like my Technics for the way it resolves cymbals, provides bass clarity, great sense of tempo and propulsion, and the way jazz horns--sax, trumpet, trombone--simply sound "right." Not to mention its rock-steady depiction of fixed pitch instruments such as piano and vibaphone.

Maybe you need to work with your 'table a little more to get what you need out of it.

How do you have your Technics platformed? What kind of feet are you using and what are they sitting on? What are you using for a mat?

My total tweaking and platforming cost me $86 plus a $40 headshell, but it's like night and day.

If you are using the stock Technics feet, you haven't begun to hear what this turntable can do.

I find that jazz is well covered with sacd and well mastered CDs whereas many rock titles are poorly mastered on cd

Not to start off into the wild blue here but there are things that a good TT can do that cannot be represented on CD in addition to your apt observation re: the mastering quality.

Your system is certainly up to the task, and I think you've answered the question of wether it would be worth it to you by starting this thread. There are other options than the ones you asked about that you might want to consider as well.

09-27-08: Radioheadokplayer
I find that jazz is well covered with sacd and well mastered CDs whereas many rock titles are poorly mastered on cd

I have the opposite experience.

I'm a long time jazz nut, and I have an extensive collection of jazz CDs and a few SACDs. But these days, I'm not only hitting the bargain bins to shore up my jazz LP collection, I've been buying LP releases of jazz CDs (and even some SACDs)I already had--Buddy Rich, Count Basie, Don Ellis, Miles Davis, Hank Jones, Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, Ella Fitzgerald--you name it.

Obviously you have about as good a preamp as can be had, so I'm wondering, what are you using for turntable feet, for an isolation platform, for a mat, for a headshell? The DarTzeel is no doubt very low noise and resolving, so you probably have to do some things to the Technics to lower its noise floor.

The measures are simple and cheap:

Turntable mat
Threaded brass footers (Dayton speaker cone spikes or Mapleshade Threaded Heavyfeet) to replace the stock Technics feet
Place turntable with brass cones on thick platform of wood, such as 2-4" butcher block or Mapleshade maple slab
Place shock absorbing feet under the wood slab. I was using Vibrapods; others use Mapleshade's Iso-Blocks, but now I use two 20" long silicon gel wrist pads made for computer keyboards.
KAB fluid damper

Each of the above tweaks lowers the noise floor another .5 to 1.5 dB. Cumulatively, they transform the turntable's ability to resolve low-level and inner detail, and also increase the dynamic range at the loud end because they help isolate the stylus from in-room vibration (which causes feedback, muddying up the sound).

Do you have a 1210 M5G or lower level model? If it's not the M5G, did you get a tonearm rewire?

I just checked where your cartridge/arm compatibility on the cartridge database and it looks like a real good match (10Hz resonance). If you have the KAB fluid damper, it drops this resonance by about 5dB, which is significant.

johnny,

I love the sound of the technic tt and vinyl but its like opening the door to another world and wondering if their are keys to an even greater kingdom through a more refined not dj tt. I love the bass response, the sound of vocals, the large soundstage. I could imagine less surface noise and even more mid-range detail. A higher quality tonearm and platter could make a difference right?

I had the cartridge tonearm setup professionally by a reputable local la dealer.

I have the latest technics tt, I have the kab fluid damper, I used a wood slab, I have vibrapod under the wood slab, I have the turntable mat, I have an appropriate cartridge. The only tweak you mention that I don't have yet is the mapleshade threated heavy feet. Do you recommend that over the kab isonoe? which mapleshade. Above my wood slap at this point I am just using another set of vibrapods.