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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 1 response by sokogear

sokogear
1,054 posts
 

The TT should not have a sound. The arm, cartridge and phono stage are what is important, assuming a distortion free TT, which it sounds like idler drives are not (never had one) since they seem to have a "sound".

They should be well matched in terms of cartridge weight and phono stage compatibility with the cartridge, and of course the arm fitting the turntable. 

Rega arms are the best bang for the buck, and for ease of implementation of course match perfectly to their tables. If you want to go above a $2200 arm (Rega's top of the line RB3000), have at it. Personally, I went with the RB880 arm for half the price of that, and ended up buying the TT it comes on (P8) after the fact. Kept the same cartridge. Arm made a much bigger difference than the table (had a Rega P5 before the P8).

 

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