Anyone hear technics tt and vpi scoutmaster/Aries?

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.

Apparently, permission is being granted to open the checkbook.

:)

Why not just eliminate the intermediate tables, arms and associated nonsense and buy a Galibier with Artisan tonearm package that is closer to the level of the rest of your components? It's world class, USA built, and can be upgraded all the way up to the top-of-the-line Galibier table.

C'mon bud, you have $50,000 speakers (maybe $100k?...can't recall the specific model of Evolution Acoustics you own), a $25,000 darTZeel amplifier, a $29,000 darTZeel preamp and a $10,000 Playback Design CD/SACD player. Clearly you have the resources to step up to a $4000 turntable.

You're taste is The Four Seasons, and your turntable is Marriot. You know you're never going to be satisfied with Marriot.

Could'nt agree with you more Tvad. He indeed does have a system worth the effort and expense.

I say if you want a VPI, then buy a used HRX and be done with it. You can sell it for not much of a loss later if it is not for you.

the question is whether the technics is a giant killer or close

Tvad, my speakers were below 30k especially with tradein