Elizabeth, this is how I look at things: I believe audio has "quantum leaps". One might have a component that is better than another, but how much better? For example, our beloved Forté 4. There are certainly better amps, but how much would we have to spend in order to get something *significantly* better? That's my point.
Regarding TTs, I believe it's the 1200 and then the Teres. I would not consider anything else in between. Now I saw this beast in eBay last night:
EMT
This is a rim drive! Bill Parish of GTT Audio does not sell TTs but uses one EMT and a Micro Seiki in his audio salon. You can see the pictures of the EMT used in the Strereophile show. He must have reasons not to use belt drives...
Tom, once someone gets used to proper speed and rotational stability it's easy to pick up the difference. If you had a cheaper belt drive in your rig next to your Teres you'd immediately notice the loss in PRAT. VPI gives us a great example, as their top TT uses a massive stainless steel flywheel in order to keep proper speed and rotational stability. I wouldn't mind to have that beast--not at all. Just remember your cherished vinyl recordings were cut with a DD TT.
In my case, I was accustomed to listen to the big DDs since I started in 1977: Technics SP10, Micro Seiki, the big Yamaha's. In spite of the inherent disadvantages, the DDs had that authority of musical presentation. Now that I'm older and wiser I see that sound is closer to the positive attributes of CDs and makes my system sound more uniform. I simply like it...
Regarding TTs, I believe it's the 1200 and then the Teres. I would not consider anything else in between. Now I saw this beast in eBay last night:
EMT
This is a rim drive! Bill Parish of GTT Audio does not sell TTs but uses one EMT and a Micro Seiki in his audio salon. You can see the pictures of the EMT used in the Strereophile show. He must have reasons not to use belt drives...
Tom, once someone gets used to proper speed and rotational stability it's easy to pick up the difference. If you had a cheaper belt drive in your rig next to your Teres you'd immediately notice the loss in PRAT. VPI gives us a great example, as their top TT uses a massive stainless steel flywheel in order to keep proper speed and rotational stability. I wouldn't mind to have that beast--not at all. Just remember your cherished vinyl recordings were cut with a DD TT.
In my case, I was accustomed to listen to the big DDs since I started in 1977: Technics SP10, Micro Seiki, the big Yamaha's. In spite of the inherent disadvantages, the DDs had that authority of musical presentation. Now that I'm older and wiser I see that sound is closer to the positive attributes of CDs and makes my system sound more uniform. I simply like it...