[Scott F.]

Hero, not a chance......Enabler, you betcha  Remember, audio is as bad as crack.

Alan and Bob, tell you what, one of the other local guys asked me to run by his place and help him dial in his new cart. I'll be bringing my DIY Wally Tools Protractor disc, levels, my Cartridge Man stylus scale and a couple of set up discs. Let me ask him if its OK but I'm sure he wouldn't mind having you over too. It will be the weekend of the 12th. Keep in mind, I'm no Mikey F. but I can get the table setup pretty darned close to where it should be.

[Bob in St. Louis]

  Cool!  Roughly where does he live?

Bob

[Scott F.]

Cool!  Roughly where does he live?

Bob

Pretty close to you 

[Bob in St. Louis]

Life doesn't get any better than that, now does it.  aa

Let me know if,when,who,how,where.....

Thanks man!
Bob

[Ichinichi]

  Ditto here!

[Ichinichi]

omit

[steve k]

Alan and Bob, tell you what, one of the other local guys asked me to run by his place and help him dial in his new cart. I'll be bringing my DIY Wally Tools Protractor disc, levels, my Cartridge Man stylus scale and a couple of set up discs. Let me ask him if its OK but I'm sure he wouldn't mind having you over too. It will be the weekend of the 12th. Keep in mind, I'm no Mikey F. but I can get the table setup pretty darned close to where it should be.

Sorry guys, but I missed this thread completely till Scott called me tonight. I'm the "other local guy" with the new cart. I've never mounted and aligned a cart before but I've broken a few cantilevers just looking at them the wrong way. So I decided to call da Man.

You guys are more than welcome to come by Saturday, April 12 around 2PM and witness the replacement of my Shure cart with my Audio Technica. I'm going from MM to MC so this should be quite a difference. I've never had another cart on my VPI so I"m really looking forward to this. We'll spin some vinyl before we change the cart so you get a feel for the sound before and after. Maybe we can videotape the process and give Mikey Fremer a run for his money with his cartridge setup DVD. aa aa

I have to warn you though, I need to reglue some loose panel wires on my maggies and I haven't had the time to get around to them. So you might hear a little buzzing now and then. Usually if we crank them enough, you don't hear it anymore.  

I live in Crestwood. PM me if you need directions.

steve

[Bob in St. Louis]

I didn't get a tracking number, so I haven't a clue when the TT is due to arrive.
If it doesn't happen today or early tommorrow, I'll be empty handed. {fingers crossed}
Also, I need to speak to my "director of social affairs" and double check that Saturday is clear.

Bob

[sturgus]

I don't know what you want to spend but for the cost you can't go wrong with the AT-PL120.
http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT-PL120-Professional-Direct-Drive-Turntable/dp/B00012EYNG/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

Sturgus

[Bob in St. Louis]

I received mine just moments ago!
It's spinning as we speak.       aa

But, I can't find where the optical cable goes 

Bob

[TheChairGuy]

What did you end up buying, Bob?

[Ichinichi]

For some reason, given my budget () I find myself edging towards vintage TTs. I can't say why, something of the aesthetic purist in me.

I think it would be coolest the go out and find a gem at some "antique" shop somewhere. Problem is, I don't know what to look for! Like Scott said, I tend to savor this education and "hunt".

[bpape]

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1212004392

[sabes]

Ichinichi: on a visit to a local hifi shop a couple of years ago to pick up a cable or some such for my all-digital rig, the proprietor invited me to sit and listen to an lp while he completed my order. the lp was "julie is her name" by julie london. i don't remember what any of the associated gear was, but all i know is that i knew immediately that i had to find a way to replicate that musicality in my home. a friendly, knowledgeable and generous AC member pointed me to an entry system that served me very well until quite recently: a vintage thorens td-125 MK II 'table with sme 3009 (improved) arm and shure v15mrIV cartridge, and an AES/Cary PH-1 phono stage. total was about $750 i think, all in. it sounded good enough for me to invest in about 2000 lp's since (god help me if my wife reads this!), mainly through a great guy who sells on audiogon, emil anghel. high quality, unusual recordings with complete honesty and integrity: if he says it's NM, it's probably Mint by most people's standards.  I've now gone completely off the deep end with my vinyl rig, but loving it more every day. i salute your decision!

[Bob in St. Louis]

What did you end up buying, Bob?

Hi John,
I didn't "BUY" anything. As I posted earlier, Dave ("Hurdy Gurdy") traded me his AR-XA with Shure cart and a ortofon cart, and a (cheapo) phono-pre (just so I could listen right away).
What did it cost??? We traded even for about 75 VHS tapes. 

Bob

[TheChairGuy]

DOH    Mea culpa....it's been an involved last couple weeks for me - THAT'S my excuse for stupidity today 

Hurdy Gurdy Dave hasn't been around of late (here or at another website I frequent, too)...where he be?

John

[AliG]

I did an A/B betweeen vinyl and CD today.  The albums we used are Diana Krall's "The Other Side of the Room", and Eagle's "Hell Freezes Over". The cd version of "Hell Freezes Over" is XRCD, so quality should not be an issue.

The digital frontend is an Esoteric, X-03SE, SACD/CD Player ($8200).
The TT rig is a VPI Scoutmaster w/ JMW9 Signature arm ($2900) with Dynavector 20XH 2.8mV cartridge ($650) with Graham Slee Era Gold MkV phono ($999); so the total cost of vinyl frontend is ~ $4550

The preamp was BAT VK-32 TUBE PREAMPLIFIER ($6000)
The amp was BAT, VK-75SE ($900)
Speaker was Sonus Faber Cremona ($9800)

The preamp allowed us to do level matching so we could switch from one source to another on the fly.

We first listened to CDs and I thought it sounded real good ...

Then we put on the vinyl.....after a few seconds, damned... ....I wish I wasn't there...I felt miserable. The CD sounded relatively dry, sterile, compressed... The vinyl version has more air, more open, more natural midrange, the instruments have better transients. It's tough to describe with words.. one really have to hear them side by side to appreciate the different. To me, the CD sounded like each intruments/vocal have been altered (messed around by the recording engineers) and then being pieced together in a unnatural way. With vinyl, I felt like each instruments/vocal blends with each other in a non-intrusive manner.

Hard to describe.. but this experience basically sealed it for me....vinyl wins... hands-down.

Now I feel miserable... because I had to go back and listen to my CDs...

[TheChairGuy]

AliG, the difference in the two formats becomes a very w-i-d-e chasm when you hear hi-quality, direct-from-master, analog recorded LP's on high quality (180 or 200 gram) vinyl. 

It's SO not close it simply trashes Redbook.

The two albums/CD's you used may well have been recorded originally 16/44.1...assuring in any format played back on afterwards it won't be of great quality.

CD is simply a neat, convenient, first 'digital' format from the late-70's...fine for the uncaring masses, but not audiophool quality. It's a 2 1/2 dimension format trying to emulate 3d sound...it cannot and it's not worth spending major cash on it.   

It's been eclipsed by DVD, DVD-A and new Blu-ray (that has adopted the DVD-A standard of 24/192 maximum with Meridian Lossless Packing....interesting and a damning gesture from Sony that did not choose it's own PCM/SACD technology for it).

I need to investigate DVD-A and Blu-ray more, but the handful of DVD-A's I have on inexpensive Pioneer player isn't quite up to standard of vinyl.  It's close enough that it doesn't need tubes to enjoy it, however, as Redbook virtually always does.

I hate vinyl's inconvenience, but love it's sound.  As audiophools, this eclipses all else.  Or should 

I have no sacred cows...I just hear things without prejudice 

John

[AliG]

CD is simply a neat, convenient, first 'digital' format from the late-70's...fine for the uncaring masses, but not audiophool quality. It's a 2 1/2 dimension format trying to emulate 3d sound...it cannot and it's not worth spending major cash on it. 

LOL... you bet... upgrading my digital front is the last thing on my mind right now.. One guy that I know only listens to vinyls on his 2-channel rigs, but he has over few thousand CDs that he listens to only at work. I thought he was an idiot/jerk  when I first met him a year ago, how things have changed..?

To add more "insult" to the CD format, when we did the A/B, I was complaining to the dealer the hassle/effort required in setting up a TT, he said don't go overboard with it, he quickly set up that Scoutmaster (it just arrived in store) in less than 20 minutes, he didn't even bother to verify the anti-skating. He put the TT on a rack without leveling it, I told him:"heck... you need to level it". He grinned:"I'll make it more not-level and you have a listen!" So he lifted one side of the TT up by half inch and let me listen to it  - and I still like the vinyl over the CD.

By the way, I am getting a VPI Aries-3 with JMW10.5i in my room for audition, the cartridge will be Dynavector 20XH, I'm also waiting on a Dodd Battery preamp which will only come in 30-45 days. I am still undecided what Phono stage to get. I was going to get the UnderwoodHifi mod PS Audio phono, but Walter Liederman told me that he thought the Modwright Phono kills everything under $7k.

AliG, the difference in the two formats becomes a very w-i-d-e chasm when you hear hi-quality, direct-from-master, analog recorded LP's on high quality (180 or 200 gram) vinyl. 

I know I have started another thread about LP recommendations. But specificallly, if you 're aware of where I can pick up some of these "direct-from-master-analog-recorded vinyls" - do share on this forum. 

 

[WGH]

I know I have started another thread about LP recommendations. But specificallly, if you 're aware of where I can pick up some of these "direct-from-master-analog-recorded vinyls" - do share on this forum. 

 

You are getting some pretty nice stuff to play with for your "first" turnable and vinyl rig. 

I don't know if these two new  180 gram albums are direct from master disks, but they are very, very nice and the quietest albums I own with a dead quiet, black background:
JJ Cale & Eric Clapton - The Road to Escondido - mastered by Bob Ludwig
Tom Petty - Highway Companion - mastered by Brian Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering

Each album is on 2 disks (4 sides), which allows for a much wider dynamic range and less inner groove distortion, but there are only three songs per side.
How quiet are these albums?
1.) Turn on preamp and set volume
2.) Mute preamp
3.) Que up first cut and set needle down
4.) Un-mute preamp
5.) Nothing, nadda, no sound at all
6.) Turn up volume
7.) Still nothing (WTF?)
8.) Music starts (loudly)

wgh