Best turntable for the buck

@tomic601

+3

I was keeping my trap shut as it would just be posted what I own, but have to believe it would be hard to beat the Sapphire for the $.

With a good arm, the choice of carts is almost endless. And of course a good phono pre.

A solid choice as a platform, if I do say so my biased self.

@rvpiano When playing classical, my vinyl rig is better than anything I have on the digital side in terms of 3 dimensionality, imaging, and soundstage. Tone and natural presentation is incredible as well, that is so important for acoustic instruments. It just ‘feels’ more real to me.

@rvpiano

bkeske,

‘Do you have the Saphire VI?
‘Does it require an arm separately?
‘The price is right.

I bought a used Model III from a gentleman here on Audiogon. It was a table only, so I purchased a new arm. I was lucky enough to get a Jelco S850 MK II when they were still available. The arm actually cost me more than the table. Then, at the time, bought a decent tone arm cable, a Soundsmith Zephyr cart followed a couple months later, which is very nice, but now have a Soundsmith MIMC star lo-output after purchasing a Hagerman Trumpet tube phono preamp a year later (was actually using a Schiit Mani up until then). Then replaced the stock tubes in the Hagerman with some nice old stock tubes, and just recently a purchased separate linear power supply for it. All this together has created a pretty nice rig I am enjoying immensely. Was all of it necessary, no, but after you get started, you simply want to make it better.

So, yes, add it all up, and a nice investment cost-wise, but very much worth it IMO, and many of the additions were added over time, not all at once. Probably about a 3.6K initial investment to get started. But, but over time, about 6K spent to date (including another back-up cart and mono cart).

And, as it is a model III, it will need sent to SOTA soon for an upgrade to min. V specs and restoration. So probably another 1-1.5k investment, and I will do it gladly.

When I started down this path, I would have told you no way would I spend 2K on a vinyl rig. Well, I’m way over that, and happy. But, to be honest, this is small change in the world of higher end vinyl rigs, (some cartridges cost as much as my investment to date), but I think I’ve done well putting together a relative bargain set-up which works incredibly well, and sounds fantastic.

@mr_m 

😁 you must have bought @tomic601 ‘s SOTA. You definitely got a great deal if so. Jim helped me out greatly when I dove into my SOTA  Sapphire purchase.

And I don’t care what anyone says, for me, vinyl is simply magical, and will always be better than my digital source. I will definitely enjoy it while I can. Sure, age may be a factor in that becoming a primary source, some day. But nobody can convince me digital will be better than my records. You just won’t win that argument.

Agreed 👍🏼 (But let’s not let it go to his head 😁 )

Good for you, have fun. I’ll do the same….and I do listen to all the various formats….but vinyl will always be preferred. It just sounds right and more ‘real’ to me.
 

As the kids used to say, ‘it’s all good’.