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Clearaudio Master Reference vs. Basis Debut V ??

Need purchase advice on which of these two to go with. Am intrigued, yet concerned with the tangential arms on the Clearaudio- the TQ-1 2000 arm is $3k ; the Master TQ-1 arm is newer, bigger and stupid expensive @ $6k. Is this new arm magic or nonsense ? Would use Graham 2.2 on Basis, which would, btw, be the vacuum model. The Graham arm seems to be almost universally praised, while getting a consensus opinion on the Souther tangential arms is far more difficult. Any 1st hand advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Showing 2 responses by mikelavigne

mikelavigne
2,209 posts
 
kelly, i had been talking to John Barnes all last fall about the CMR but he couldn't really say how it compared to the Debut V. i really appreciate finally hearing how the comparison came out.

in the meantime, i have found a Rockport System II Sirius used that i am getting instead of the CMR. I really wanted the vaccuum and linear tracking and had been torn between the CRM and Debut V.
mikelavigne
2,209 posts
 
Thomas, i don't know Kelly (CFB) personally but i do know his friend at Audio Unlimited that sells the CRM. i have done business there for 5 years and they sell and recommend many different analog products. i bought my Basis 2500/Graham 2.2/Aesthetix Io from Audio Unlimited. last fall when i was considering the CRM, Audio Unlimited had not compared it to the Basis/Graham combination and wouldn't venture to guess which sounded better. in fact, they were leaning toward the Basis Debut V as probably better. now, after spending time comparing they have come to a different conclusion. that doesn't mean everyone would agree but their credibility is very high and as they sell many of the competition there is no reason for them to do a "sales pitch".

just my 2 cents.
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