direct drive tt's?

Ah, I see I have touched on one of the classic friendly debates here too ;)

Well, yes, I am satisfied with the set-up right now. I am running a Sumiko Black Pearl cartridge right now, and the sound is, hmm, let me see... I will say it is punchy, rich, clean (if the record is clean) and spacious but alas not always "holographic" (depends on recording, I am sure).

Strangely, I am finding repeatedly that my rock lp's almost always sound richer and sweeter than my classical lp's. I almost NEVER listen to classical on vinyl, since in almost every case, the digital version sounds better in my sysem as it stands. Only a bare few exceptions to this rule, one of which I listend to a few days ago: Sviatislow Richter in Lizst' s piano concerto 1 on vinyl sounds slightly better and more open in the vinyl version. On my rock stuff, all I will say is this: I love listening to that area of music on either digital or analog, and bth sound sometimes wonderful on my system (Theta Miles cd, balanced output direct into BAT vk-500).

I wnder why my classical lp's never work for me? Is it the limits of my analog playback gear as it stands, or is ther problems with classical lp's that the studio-produced rock one's just don't have?

I want to say much thanks for the information and advice. I just learned some stuff! Sadly, as far as large scale upgrading goes, I also need a better phono pre, even before I would consider purchasing a new TT. Heh, maybe I should help the economy by running up MORE credit card debt?

pcanis

I am frankly stunned at how cheep used P3's with what by all accounts is a superb arm (rb300) go for. I am leaning toward keeping an eye pealed for one of those.

As for the miida, yes, I am happy with it, and felt somewhat reassured when I had notieced it had, for example, no auto-lift at the end of the record. I am guessing here, but wouldn't it only be intended "audiophile" players that would have been missing this "feature" back in the early 70's? Plus, it weighs around 30 pounds or, which too is reassuring. The attached output cables are also very thick, suggesting at least an intention for this to be a "serious" deck for that time.

My focus now is going to be on isolation, then on a new table. From the posts here, and reading up on some "upgrade" oriented posts in the archives, I've seen that really, objective number one should always be to get the table itself all straightened out. So, no fiddling with new carts or pre-amps YET ;)

How can the P3 be so good a player for so cheap? Is it because of that arm, which I have heard is just simply one of those "pure gems" of the hi-fi world?

One feature I do sometimes think about as a goal would be easily chageable headshells or tonearms. The reason for this is I have heard recently (the wonderful MF in stereophile, a tweaker with taste imo) that mono records benefit from a mono cartridge, and I would like to be able to switch out carts for when I pull out one of my many 40's or 50's era lp's. I am guessing headshells would be the easiest route for that kind of strategy.

Well, during this horrible time of tragedy it is a welcome relief to turn to things of beauty to recharge the spirit, and thats what music does for me. Listen on all!

pcanis

I've been doing some comparison listening between the budget Thorens TD-180 belt drive turntable I was using, and the DD drive TT mentioned in this thread, and I've come to the conclusion that, using the same cartridge, the DD drive just simply has more body and substance to its sound.

Of course the Thorens was their absolute bargain table, so the only claim I can make here is that a mid-line well-built, old DD still might be better than the newer, super-budget belt drive tables.

I suspect the difference is due to the sheer stability of the Miida table. It is pretty substantial, and maybe there is no substitute for that???

pcanis