[Scott F.]

Nothing too major, just trying to help you clean out some spare gear on your shelves to help further corrupt a budding audiophile.

Back story
So last year I found out my young cousin was getting into vinyl. Greg is about 35, has a young family and is on a tight budget. Right now he's using an old Sony integrated. He stretched his budget and bought a Fluance turntable with (I think) an Ortofon cart. He was using a crappy pair of speaker/sub separates and the internal phonostage for playback.

So, I had Greg come over and I hooked him up with a pair of the Aperion Audio 6T floorstanders, we added a little Bellari phonostage, I gave him a Sony ES SACD player and a few SACDs, a giant pile of vinyl, a Spin Clean record cleaner and a big pile of GIK sound treatments. I also had him pick up some better speaker cable and decent interconnects, nothing great but better than undersized zip cord.

Now he's at the next juncture. He's looking to upgrade the phonostage (Bellari). He's got a budget of just north of $400. For that kind of money, I'm hoping to find something that is a nice step up from the Bellari. It doesn't have to have MC inputs. He'll be in the MM stage for a while.

Do any of you guys have a decent phonostage gathering dust on a shelf that you'd like to get rid of at a bargain price?

That typed, if somebody has an old integrated that has a good sounding phonostage, that might work also. The Sony he is using is the cheap, mass market version. It sounds sorta 'meh' but it does the job. A better integrated with an integral, decent sounding phonostage might be an option but it can't be anything that would need a ton of work.

So, can any of you local guys help with the further corruption of my kin?

TIA   

[popthinker]

PM sent.

[Mr Peabody]

I have an AcousTech PH-1 Premier made by Sutherland for Acoustic Sounds, it got great reviews and retailed at $1695.00 some years ago.  They go used for around $750 give or take, if he could stretch to $500.00 I'd sell it since I'm not currently using it.  This would be a piece he could use for a long time without having to upgrade as his system builds.

Bryan

[Scott F.]

Hi All,

I've got Greg coming by today. I've got something in the works that will be a change in direction for him, for the better. We'll see what his thoughts are and I'll share once he commits one way or the other.

Thanks for the offers! I may take you up on them depending on which way he goes.

[Rocket]

Hi Guys,

Sounds like a bargain price for phono stage.  I remember adding a good quality phono stage for the first time and I was amazed out how much better vinyl sounded. Its my preference over digital now.

Don't corrupt your cousin too much as he might get a divorce .

Cheers Rod

[Scott F.]

So, here's the update for my cousin.

Greg is a painter by trade, so I hit him up and asked "Do you do side work?" and his response was, "What have you got in mind?". From there, we were off to the races.

I've got a couple K in work I need done around the house, some staining, a little painting and help acid etching and sealing the garage floor. This reset his budget and opened us up to a ton of opportunities. I mentioned to him with his original upgrade, it sounded as if he was moving to the next level of audiophilia. He said that's what he's looking to do, so I knew what my task was, replacing his Sony HT integrated with a decent integrated, adding a decent phonostage and rolling in as many accessories as I could fit in the budget.

After a fair amount of research, I narrowed the integrated's search down to the Rega Brio, the Peachtree Deco Sky, the Rogue Sphinx and finally a Yaqin MC-100. On the phonostage, I gave him a couple choices in an EAR 834 (knockoff) on eBay which with some quick mods should sound pretty good and the Graham Slee line. The other upgrade that was a must is replacing his Ortofon Red with something that will dig a bit more detail out of the grooves. For that I settled on the AT VM750SH which uses the Shibata stylus.

So, after a ton of deliberation, Greg settled on the Yaqin, the Slee Era Gold, the AT cart and we were able to squeeze in some fair cabling and a DeZorel power conditioner (that I basically gave him). These will be driving the Aperion Audio 6T floor standers.

The Yaqin, though not super high end, has lots of room for mods to improve the sound. There's been a boatload of these sold and it's got a fairly decent reputation for being reliable. I told him, if it breaks, either Mike Missel or myself can fix it, so no worries. He just needs to feed the beast new tubes every few years. It's a PP KT88 that does 60W in pentode mode and 30W in triode (or so they say). More than enough to drive the crap out of the Aperion's. 

We talked about doing something digital and gave him a few options but he said he's pretty well dedicated to vinyl. So, we've got another valves and vinyl convert in our midst!

He should be pretty darned happy with this system. I'd think, maybe with a few mods down the line, he'll hang on to this system for a bunch of years.

[Blackmore]

Awesome Scott!!!!  Why am I thinking about Curtis Mayfield's "I'm your pusher man"?

[Scott F.]

Awesome Scott!!!!  Why am I thinking about Curtis Mayfield's "I'm your pusher man"?

   That would be me

[Mr Peabody]

Looks like a nice set up Scott.

[sturgus]

  That would be me

Yes it would!!!

[steve k]

You did a fine job setting him up Scott! If he's willing to get a little more power down lhe line, I'll give him a deal on my Maggies.