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Intriguing world of Analog

I am an aspiring audiophile and have enjoyed the forum postings on Audiogon over the past few months. I am impressed by the number of people with such advanced knowledge on audiophile subjects and who are willing to share their knowledge with others. I have become intriqued with the seemingly complex world of turntables, tone arms, cartridges and many other itemes related to analog music. I've seen pictures of turntables having numerous tone arms associted therewith and I am curious as to why one would need multiple tone arms. Many years have passed from the day I had a record player and we would tape a penny to the tone arm above the cartridge to keep the record from bouncing off the record. I'm sure the analogophiles reading this post are clutching their chests and gasping for air at the thought of it.

Somehow I feel another obsession coming on.

If I wanted to make an initial foray into the analog world of music what would be a good starting point? Is there a turn-key solution where you purcahse a table, tone arm and cartridge in one fell swoop? I would be willing to spend from $1500-$2,000.

My current sysem is as follows: Classe CA 200 amp, Classe CDP 35 preamp, B&W Matrix 802 series III speakers, and a Yamaha RX Z11 AV receiver. My preamp has a phono location on the source knob.

Will I need a separate phono amp or can I use my Yamaha reciever?

Your help and recommendations would be greatly appreicated.
papajoe
papajoe OP
43 posts
 
Almandog,

I will try, initially, to resist the temptation of going hog wild on a spending spree. I will try to take baby steps first and then see what happens. My first step will be to buy something like the Hall MMF5 that you recommended or one of the several others that have been recommneded in this thread. If that satisfies my urge I will stop there. However, when I see some of the tt rigs on Audiogon I get this funny feeling deep inside which tells me to be careful.

Thanks for your comments.

Joe
pedrillo
560 posts
 
Good advice from almandog.
Just want to point out that if you do your research well- you may end up keeping everything you bought. I only sold off one item of all the things I purchased here on gon. I consider myself lucky but it was also due to the good planning.
Fortunately you can buy used, so then when if you decide to sell it back you won't take a big loss.
I still would recommend the vpi, but that's what worked for me so take it with a grain of salt. The beauty of this hobby is that there are so many good brands to choose from. The other thing I would recommend is to get a good phono stage. But that's for another thread.
After you get set up, regardless of what tt you choose you can still go with decoupling the tt from the room, I add this because it can make a big difference, just a thought.
papajoe OP
43 posts
 
I have ordered the phono board for the Classe CP-35. It cost $200.00. From the installation instructions it looks like I can install it myself, no soldering required. The phono board supports both MM and MC cartridges. I believe the lowest voltage is 0.3 mVolts which should support most cartridges on the market today.

Thanks,

Joe
undertow
1,032 posts
 
200 is not bad... Should be a pretty good one too, better than the yamaha for sure. It would seem it is just a module with a like computer type quick connect and your preamp was designed for the phono card anyway from the beginning as an option, so should be very simple to install, might have a second wire harness on it to attach to the main power supply or something.
papajoe OP
43 posts
 
Hello all,

I have now officially taken the plunge into the analog world. Today I purchased a VPI Scout turntable and a Dynavector 20X cartridge with a 1mv output. Apparently, this cartridge is one variety of Dynavector 20X cartridges that come in high output, low output, and medium output which is the one I purchased. I have also purchased the DVD 21st Century Vinyl by Michael Frem to assist me in setting up the table and installing the cartridge. Now I will pull my records from storage.

Any tips on record cleaning utensils?

Thanks,

Joe
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