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Do I buy an upscale TT?

I recently heard a $50K TT at a friend’s and was floored by the performance.


It was a sound from a system I have never heard.

I have a very nice Woodsong Garrard 301, Tri-Planar arm and Grado Epoch 3 cartridge. Going into an Atma-Sphere MP-1 pre wt phono.

Discovered an affordable TT based on the Legendary Commonwealth idler drive TT (said to be among the best). One is $8500 and the other more elaborate one is $15K.

And there is another highly modified brass Garrard 401 for $10K. (said to be as good as the Commonwealth)

The big question is whether or not I am going to be pleased with the improvement in sound? There will certainly be a lot of hassle to change TTs!

mglik

Showing 2 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,398 posts
 

There are world class turntables based on idler arm, sprung, and unsprung. Personally, unless one is strongly rewarded by nostalgia for a youthful experience or reproducing a “sound” from your history, it makes no sense to buy old tables. The formula has not been lost. But the available tooling and parts as well as designs have leaped forward over the last fifty years. Especially around the turn of the century there was a huge advancement in turntables.

I would recommend taking advantage of new technology. The Tri-Planar is a very well respected tone arm… I would recommend using it on a contemporary turntable. Go listen to some high end tables. 

ghdprentice
6,398 posts
 

@grislybutter 

But the momentum of producing great new high end tables had tremendous momentum… and before table companies started cutting back the vinyl resurgence occurred.

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