Just wanted to share my happiness with someone (seeing as my wife doesn't understand)...
I just picked up a preowned Clearaudio Performance DC belt-drive turntable with the outstanding Tracer tonearm. Since I returned to vinyl about six or seven years ago I've had a Rega P3 and a P6. I learned a lot from them and enjoyed some great recordings, but this new deck and arm are in a different league altogether.
Frankly, I didn't expect that a turntable upgrade would make that big a difference, but the only other component that created anything like this level of improvement was when I moved from a NAD M32 amp to a Modwright KWH 225i, which has a triode input section and a good chunk of solid state power behind that.
Specifically, the Clearaudio table and arm cleaned up some slight muddiness in the upper midrange and extended both the left-right and front-back edges of the soundstage. They also added more slam in the bottom without shifting the overall profile in that direction. In fact, the simplest summary of the sound is that everything sounds in balance: tonally, dynamically, and spatially. My primary cartridge is a Hana ML moving coil, and I listened to that in both my Rega P6 and in the Clearaudio back-to-back, and I'm confident in my comparisons.
One final note is that my Performance DC came with a very attractive aftermarket perforated leather platter mat. After listening to the Clearaudio combo with the mat for a couple of days I decided to remove it and listen to a few tracks. I was surprised again...there was a significant increase in the clarity of recordings and a more precise placement of instruments and voices without the mat.
Thanks for putting up with my rambling...like I said, I'm a happy guy!
System: Clearaudio Performance DC turntable with Clearaudio Tracer tonearm and Hana ML mc cartridge; NAD M50.2 digital player/vault; Modwright PH 9.0XT phono stage; Okto Research dac8 Stereo DAC; Modwright KWH 225i integrated amp; Custom 2-way solid mahogany tower speakers with ScanSpeak and Morel drivers; PS Audio Power Plant power regenerator; Hapa Audio, M101, and Audio Art cables.
