$800 Cartridge Shootout and Upgrade Path

Yeah Artar! What happened? I have passed out several times holding my breath while waiting for your announcement. Unless yr scared to tell us that you got a twin pack of Technics direct drives and are now MC Artar!

I have been slaving to pay off the Grand Prix Audio rack. I'm still not playing with tweaks on it because everything sounds so right. My only hope for upgrading my digital front end at this point would be selling my preamp(Pass Labs X1 - a very neutral performer) and getting something that could drive the amp directly. I have a Golden Tube Audio pre out to Parts Connexion for modification and when it gets back, somebody's got to go. I'm also getting money put aside for my turntable purchase. I am hoping that Thom from Galibier can get a Schroeder Model 2 from Frank at CES so I can hear it when I go to Colorado but we'll see. Frank's got a long lag time for his arms......I'm definitely leaning towards that arm.

It was sad news about Thomas Scheu, him being sort of the father figure for these tables we're all interested in. It's nice to see that his business partner is going to continue on with some developments they had in the works and keep the company going.

I was just in Detroit visiting family and bought a ton of records there. My budget for analog has subsumed all other purchase thoughts for now. The only thing being that I plan is to upgrade my Sonic Frontiers phono stage by sending it to Parts Connexion next week......

Now if Artar would remove the suspense by the New Year we'll have a happy one........

Maybe Atar is so sunk into audio bliss with his new system he has forgotten all about Audiogon and the fact that lots of people are waiting in suspense for his final decision. I came very late to this thread, but sure would like to know what he ended up with - if only to help me with my own decisions. :-D

Holly

You mean, you think, that it's possible that Artar is actually "Listening to Music" instead of hanging out here on the audiothreads!!! For shame! He's the one that got us into this mess in the first place. I'm still wrangling with work to take the time off to go to Denver to hear the Galibier and Teres tables. After a year of research I have decided that one of those tables is gonna be mine. At this point it looks like I'll be waiting on a Schroeder Model 2 tonearm to match with it. Then I will sit around listening to music and ignoring the black hole of the internet that sucks up so much of my time never to be seen again.....

Hello all!

First let me say a Merry Christmas, a bit late I know, and a Happy New Year!

Well, several things have kept me away from the keyboard and this thread. The first was my workload, which had been extreme leading up to Christmas. The second was a bit of an emotional let down, so to speak, after I had made both my analog decisions and analog purchases. (Yes indeedy, I bought a bunch of stuff!). The third was Thomas Scheu’s death, which cast a long shadow over everything analog. And finally, I was unexpectedly saddened by the shocking events surrounding the Tsunami disaster in Southwest Asia. Only now do I feel like writing, and then I don’t quite have the same level of enthusiasm as before. But in a week or two I am sure all of that will change.

Oakiris,

So you started out with three grand and blew by that number! Well, welcome to the big spenders club! What do you mean by being realistic? Just go for it, right? If you like the Teres 255 buy it. It’s one hell-of-a turntable, and that’s for sure. If you can’t afford the Teres, wait until you can. Settling for less will only cost you more money in the long run. If you have a turntable, then go for what you really want instead of accepting something that will soon be replaced.

What did I buy? Well I bought this:

Eurolab Premier MKII Turntable
Morech DP-6 Tonearm with a Precision Red-dot Arm Tube
Nelson Pass Xono Phono Stage
Billy Bags Equipment Rack

I will write more about this later. I am running out of time tonight to go into any more details.

Cheers!

Artar - sorry about misspelling your name several times.
:-o

Glad to know you are still in the universe. The Asian tsunami is indeed a major catastrophe - the death toll is over 125,000 now. I agree that it certainly puts in perspective the search for audio nirvana in the face of such a tragedy.

You have built yourself a very nice system; I hope your enjoyment of audio returns. What cartridge did you end up getting? (I mean, that WAS the focus of this thread, right?!? :-) I know, it went rather far beyond the cartridge.)

I visited Chris at Teres Audio yesterday and I have actually decided on the Teres 160 turntable with an Origin Live Silver tonearm. Not sure about the cartridge yet - I may have to get "cheap & cheerful" until I can afford something better. We'll see!