Earlier this year I decided to part company with the Garrard 401 that I had been happily using for about 4 years. It had two Jelco tonearms, one 9" and the other 12". The rig was mounted in a custom made heavy walnut
plinth. For cartridges I was using a Ortofon SPU Gold Reference stereo and for mono it was a Ortofon SPU CG25 DIMKII.
I'm not really sure why got rid of it and moved on. I was tremendously happy with it. Part of the reason, I believe, is that I always had this burning question in my mind about what sort of performance and listening experience there is to be had at the budget end of the cost spectrum. I haven't really experienced that in many years, and over the last 10 years or so the lowest cost vinyl rig that I have owned -- including turntable, arm, and cartridge -- was somewhere in the neighborhood of $4,200. So last spring I was determined to clear out some space in my audio racks and get a pair of direct drive turntables. At the time I already owned what was an unused Technics SL-1200MKII. But I wanted two tables, one would have a stereo cart and the other would be home to a mono cart. Why not just change cartridges? It is easy enough, after all. While true, changing cartridges would require that I set VTA and VTF when making the swap, and then adjusting the phono preamp gain and loading to match. Too much of a hassle, as I like to switch between mono and stereo LPs on the fly without any interruptions to my listening sessions. But buying a second SL-1200MKII would turn out to be an expensive proposition since Technics has discontinued them and the asking price on the used market is exorbitant, to say the least.
So I decided to put my SL-1200MKII up for sale on eBay. I would use the proceeds to purchase two Pioneer PLX-1000 direct drive SL-12xx clones. The Pioneer cost $699 retail. I did a lot of homework on this turntable and decided that it would meet my needs. I sold the Technics for enough to buy two PLX-1000s and a pair of Herbies Audio Labs Way Excellent II turntable mats. I went with the Audio Technica AT-OC9/III for stereo. I have had no prior experience with Audio Technica cartridges so I did a lot of research on it. For mono I decided to buy more than one cartrdige and went with the Ortofon Quintet Mono, Ortofon OM D25M, and Audio Technica AT33MONO. I added a pair iFi Audio iPhono phono preamps to complete the set up.
Here is what a complete PLX-1000 setup cost me:
Turtable - $699
Mat - $80
Cartridge - $499
Phono Preamp - $429
Total ~ $1,700
Here is what my system looked like with both tables...
The PLX-1000 with the Ortofon Quintet Mono...
...and with the Audio Technica AT33MONO
I was very happy with this set up. It was transparent enough that I wasn't getting distracted by shortcomings of the equipment as I was listening to music. And I found that I could get just as lost in the music as I could with much more expensive rigs that I have owned. The only real fault I could find that a tiny amount of hum was making it to my speakers, but it was well below the noise floor of vinyl so when records were playing I couldn't hear it, even during breaks between tracks or in the lead-in and run-out grooves.
I felt the PLX-1000 - AT-OC9/III combo performed well above its price point. I especially liked the OC9/III's tight, punchy bass and extended treble. Cymbals and hi-hats have an amazing life-like character on this cartridge, and midrage performance is great as well.
Over the summer I decided to turn my substantial collection of about 3,300 CDs into cash. Most of the digital music I listen to is hi res content that I download from High Definition Tape Transfers, Acoustic Sounds, or HD Tracks. And even then digital music only accounts for perhaps 5% or so of my total listening time. Most of the music that I had on CD I also have on vinyl. So I ended up selling the entire lot between two stores. I also came into a financial windfall and started thinking again about audiophile turntables. Why would I do that if I was truly happy with the Pioneer PLX-1000 rigs? Well, because I can is the only real answer I can offer. There were a few turntables out there that have always interested me but I have never owned: Nottingham Analogue Hyperspace, JA Michell Orbe, and the Origin Live Resolution -- all made in Great Britain. I also briefly considered a Pro-ject Xtension 10 or 12 but after doing some research on these tables I was left with a lot of concers about build quality. Long story short is that the British made tables I was looking at were all over-engineered and featured superb build quality.
I went with a Nottingham Space 294, rather than the Hyperspace, because I wanted a 12" arm. I added the heavy duty upgrade kit and bought the Ace-Space 12" tonearm. For a cartridge I already had a Dynavector XX2 MKII that was used as a backup and had very low hours on it. But I wanted to try a Lyra so I bought a Lyra Delos with the turntable. Here is how the cost breaks down.
Space 294 Turntable - $3,499.00
Heavy Duty Upgrade Kit - $1,499
Space-Ace 12" tonearm - $1,899
Lyra Delos - $1,650.00
Total ~ $8,547
Here are some pictures. The shipping weight was 85lbs:
I had to wait two weeks for the heavy duty upgrade kit because the U.S. Distributor and Nottingham audio dealer, Audio Encounter Solutions did not have it in stock so they had to order one from the factory.
Here is the turntable with the heavy duty kit installed.
The Nottingham turntable is a model of simplicity, in some cases that is its great strength and in others it is arguably a weakness.
On the strength side of the equation is the sheer mass of the platter. With the heavy kit installed the platter weighs about 40 to 45 lbs. It is a monster to lift and install. The motor is a low torque AC unit. There is no on/off switch so power is always applied to the motor. It does not have enough torque to set the platter in motion from a dead stop. You have to manually give the platter a spin and the motor provides just enough energy to keep it moving. Initially I was a little concerned about how speed stable it was. I put a key strobe on it and the speed is spot on accurate at both 33 and 45 RPM. You change speeds by moving the belt on the pulley. It takes just a second or two to do.
On the weakness side is the lack of any sort of calibrated adjustments on the tonearm.
Everything is all there in terms of adjustments: Azimuth, VTA, VTF, Anti-skate. But the system is rather crude and takes some getting used to. That said, I did not have too much trouble dialing in the recommended VTF of 1.75g for the Lyra Delos, and getting everything else set up. It just takes a little more patience than other arms.
Something else worth noting is that the Nottingham arm is a unipivot. This was almost a deal breaker for me because I have an intense dislike of unipivot arms. But the Nottingham Analogue arm is like no other unipivot arm that I have ever seen. It employs a race bearing that keeps the arm stable and prevents wobbling. It is a rather clever, if not ingenious, approach to the design.
So there are my two tables. The obvious questions are:
How much better is the Nottingham Space 294 than the Pioneer PLX-1000? Does it sound $6,800 better?
Since having both of these tables set up and in use now for a while I haven't really given that a great deal of thought. I use the Pioneer PLX-1000 for most vintage stereo vinyl, and for all of my mono LPs (vintage and audiophile). I use the Nottingham Space 294 for all of my audiophile stereo pressings (I own enough of them to make having this turntable worthwhile). Before I bought the Nottingham, I was listening to my audiophile vinyl on the Pioneer and was completely satisfied. That being the case, the more expensive Nottingham does not sound all that much better than the Pioneer. I know that may shock some people, especially those who believe that cost closely correlates to performance. I have never held that view, and have long believed that in the audio game the point of diminishing returns is much lower than what is widely accepted by most audiophiles. My feeling is that if you are going to spend lavishly anywhere in your set up, buy the best pair of loudspeakers you can afford. Now, some might be quick to point out that I am biased and therefore my experience is nothing more than a self-fullfilling prophecy. It would be hard to argue otherwise. However, this is not a case where I bought a budget turntable and then argued against audiophile class gear that I haven't heard. Moreover, no one sent the Nottingham to me to try. I bought the turntable with my own money.
Now ask me if I think the Nottingham turntable is worth the price of admission. Damn skippy it is. The turntable is over-engineerd, a work of analogue engineering art, and a fine performing turntable. I have no regrets whatsoever about the purchase. I didn't buy it because I was expecting it to leave the Pioneer PLX-1000 in the dust performance-wise.
So my advice to people considering a turntable is this: 1) If you have $50,000 burning a hole in your pocket and won't miss the money then go for it, and buy yourself any one of a number of boutique audio turntables in that price class that catches your eye. It will give you and your audio friends a lot to talk about and it will certainly sound great. On the other hand, if you are expecting it to sound $47,000 better than someone's $3K rig then that probably is not going to be the case and you are likely to be disappointed. At that high of a price you zoomed past the point of diminishing returns 10s of thousands of dollars ago. 2) For someone who is trying to strech their audio dollars and has a modest amount of money to play with, don't fret. You don't need to spend a lot to get a lot in terms of performance. You do need to spend some, however. What I would advise against is over-extending yourself financially to get something like, say, an Origin Live Resolution when a direct drive like the Pioneer PLX-1000 and a solid performing MC cartridge like the AT-OC9/III are easily within reach. It might not win a beauty contest but it will damn sure make excellent sounding music.
--Jerome
