Choosing a new turntable

As far as Vintage, I will be selling my Roksan Xerxes 1989 with Artemiz tone arm and a black Corus cartridge soon. I loved the TT but it is a delicate TT  for me ,so not too patient in handling best left to someone who’s knowledgeable with vintage gear. That is the reason I m looking to buy a recent good turntable.

@elliottbnewcombjr I hate to pop your bubble, but one great tonearm is way better than two cheap ones. Dust covers should be isolated and hinged so they can be used during play. A good thick acrylic dust cover can attenuate sound up to 10 dB at some frequencies further isolating the cartridge from sound. Removable head shells are a terrible thing to do to a cartridge and it's meager signal. Every contact degrades the signal just a little. The right way to wire a tonearm is a single cable cartridge clips to RCAs or XLRs at the phono stage end. The Schroder CB is an example of such an arm. The Thorens TD 1600 is a turntable with an isolated dust cover done the right way. The dust cover is mounted to the plinth not the chassis carrying the tonearm and platter. 

@vicdior Of the three turntables you have chosen the MoFi MasterDeck is the best as long as you place it on an isolation platform with a hinged dustcover. I suggest you look at the Thorens TD1600. It has a great dust cover, it is properly suspended and isolated and it has a fine tonearm. 

Turntables are vibration measuring devices and they do not care where the vibration is coming from. There is always a large amount of vibration in the environment at low frequencies. I call this environmental rumble which you can easily see if you have a turntable that is not properly isolated. Place the stylus down on a stationary record, turn the volume all the way up and watch the woofer or subwoofer. It should remain absolutely stationary, any movement is a problem. The only way to isolate a turntable from environmental rumble is to suspend the chassis that carries the tonearm and platter. The suspension should have a resonance frequency below 3 Hz. 

The best value in a mid priced turntable is the Thorens TD 1600. It has a fine suspension, an isolated dust cover that should be used during play and a fine tonearm. Next up would be a SOTA Sapphire with a Kuzma  4 Point 9. 

The Wand tonearm is a terrible design. It is a unipivot arm, the worst bearing configuration. It is being used because it is cheap. The Wand arm tube is a little pipe organ. Again, this is a simple cheap way of doing an arm wand. It is also ugly as h-ll. The turntable also suffers from some bad design choices. The oversized platter keeps you from using a 9" tonearm. 9" is the optimum length for a tonearm. Longer arms have higher moments of inertia and higher effective masses. Longer arm wands are not as stiff as shorter ones. Tracking angle error is a little higher, but the benefits outweigh this resulting in a better tracking and sounding tonearm. Longer arms are made because lay instinct demands them and manufacturers have to sell product. 

Thank you for your recommendations, I will keep that in mind , good day!

mijostyn

"@elliottbnewcombjr I hate to pop your bubble,

You are not popping my or anyone’s bubble, just exposing your different beliefs/preferences.

My preferences:

"but one great tonearm is way better than two cheap ones"."

NO one said CHEAP Tonearms. However, the arm with REMOVABLE Headshell is the one for MONO Cartridge AND Alternates. The main arm, preferably long, can be fixed or removable.

3 Tonearms, one dedicated to MONO, that arm does not need to be ’superior’ relative to the others, just a respected arm to have a MONO cartridge ready to play mono lp’s in seconds. FAR better than a single arm, playing Mono LP’s with a Fixed Stereo Cartridge, even if your Preamp has Mono Mode. Easily heard by anyone.

"Dust covers should be isolated and hinged so they can be used during play. A good thick acrylic dust cover can attenuate sound up to 10 dB at some frequencies further isolating the cartridge from sound."

Who in their right mind would want to 'attenuate' SOME frequencies by 10db? Attenuate various frequencies to various extent????

Right? Wrong? MANY people say ’dust cover off’, to avoid reflected microphonics. No way do I believe a dustcover down is either proper or better. How many of these crazy looking expensive turntables of great renown even have dust covers? And if the do, they are custom monster ’surrounds’, certainly not hinged. Not played when on, actually impossible to start an LP and put those monster ’surrounds’ in place.

"Removable head shells are a terrible thing to do to a cartridge and it’s meager signal. Every contact degrades the signal just a little."

Soooooo many great highly respected tonearms have removable headshells, this argument is theoretical, ’purist’ in nature, not evidenced by those many hi-end makers. In another thread, a quick look at hifishark tonearms for sale: I listed a long list of ’famous’ tonearm makers with removable headshells. The current batch of mid-priced TTs with arms with fixed cartridges do a dis-service to their owners IMO.

"The right way to wire a tonearm is a single cable cartridge clips to RCAs or XLRs at the phono stage end. The Schroder CB is an example of such an arm."

Yes perhaps, at least ’purist’ thinking: but no way are the MAJORITY going to purchase the limitations that involves. I had wires soldered to phono cable, a total pain, and when re-wired to VPI mini-din junction box, I heard no degradation.

I seriously doubt two absolutely identical setups, totally revealing: the only difference not having a joint in-line that a difference could be heard. Even by a bat.

"The Thorens TD 1600 is a turntable with an isolated dust cover done the right way. The dust cover is mounted to the plinth not the chassis carrying the tonearm and platter."

I would lift it off for play, hope the hinges are the drop in type.

Following one other discussion re dust covers, there was an informal poll here, and most of us declared a preference for no dust cover. To a novice I’d say try it both ways and choose for yourself. It’s easy to do.

As to headshell or no headshell, in theory it’s obvious a straight shot from cartridge to phono input is best. In practice I don’t hear a difference for higher output cartridges but perhaps it makes a small difference for the very lowest output cartridges. Difficult to say because you’re never doing it both ways with the very same tonearm. If there is an audible difference it’s so close I don’t fret over it.