$800 Cartridge Shootout and Upgrade Path

I applaud TWL's excellent treatise on the relative importance of a turntable. His logical approach is compelling.

In my experience the turntable is the most critical part of an analog setup followed by the tonearm and then the cartridge. This has been debated before and while there is never complete consensus, there seems to be broad support for this position among experienced listeners. I hold to this position because of what I have heard from a broad spectrum of tables, arms and cartridges. Theory is nice, but is no substitute for actually listening.

Synergy between various components is of course important. But my experience tells me that tonearm, cartridge matching is what matters most. There are synergies that go well beyond simple compliance/mass matching that are often difficult to predict. I find that matching an arm/cart to a turntable to be much less of an issue. A good sounding arm/cart combination always works well with a good turntable.

So contrary to what some have said here, selecting a turtable first is a sound strategy.

Artarl,

Finishing a Teres hardwood base really does take only a few hours. Of course the whole process takes a few days because you need to let the finish dry between coats of tung oil. But each coat only takes 10-15 minutes and the initial sanding is trivial and usually is not needed at all. The 200 series turntables have hardwood armboards that just need the same finish as the base.

For the 150 and 160 it takes a little more effort because the acrylic armboard needs to be sanded and polished. The armboard polishing is still less than an hour even if you don't have a buffer.

All of the other parts are ready to go and don't need any work.

Chris