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Got A Turntable...What Next?

I inherited my deceased dad's vintage TT , speakers and
large classical vinyl collection. He died in 92 and the stuff was still in his basement in perfect condition just
like he left it.I am now taking care of my 87 year old
mom with Alzheimers and decided to get his rig back up and running. I brought over an old receiver with a phono stage
and a friend lent me an AT cart just to see how things sounded. Now its three months later and the system has grown with used gear as shown below.

Thorens TD-125 w/SME 3009 II
Shelter 501 mk2
PS Audio GCPH
Decware SE 341.2 (6 watt) tube w/ NOS Amperex Holland
Altec Lansing "Laguna"
http://www.vintage-audio.com.ua/en/cat/68/1469.html

I am really enjoying the vinyl experience again, have a cleaning machine and i am doing it the right way.

My questions are:
I want to upgrade to a better sounding system.....should i keep any of my present gear? I feel the speakers are the weak link, they have a wonderful mid-range but lack a little in high end and bass.
Any opinions? My budget is 8-10k. Used gear is fine.
I listen to mostly classic rock, blues and some classical.
edtyre

Showing 3 responses by restock

restock
831 posts
 
I doubt the Laguna are the weak part of the system. A friend's Altec A7's are IMO still one of the best speakers I heard to date and that includes many modern hornspeakers, such as the Avantgarde and others.

You may want to look into modifying and rewiring the crossovers of the Altecs. Otherwise the amp may not be an ideal match, try some different SET amps if you can.

Finally the SME arm is a little lightweight for the low compliance Shelter cartridge and not an ideal match which will show in the bass most. The Shelter is a nice cartridge and the SME arm is nice too, but the match is far from ideal with respect to arm- cartridge resonance. I would consider a different cartridge for the SME arm.
restock
831 posts
 
Does your SME have a removable headshell or not? The removable one has a slightly higher effective mass and may work borderline with the Shelter.

I don't have any personal experience with low mass arms and thus have only limited recommendations - I think Raul might even have some better recommendations for high compliance cartridges.

Worth trying would be the Shure V 15 VxMR, Cartridge Man Music Maker,
Audio Technica AT440ML...At least for a start!
restock
831 posts
 
The 3009 with removable headshell is borderline ok. Given the effective arm mass or 9.5g and specs of the Shelter (8.1g, 9cu compliance) you get a resonance frequency of about 12.5Hz just a little outside the ideal range.

The Shure V 15 VxMR is very often matched to your arm (and difficult to get), but the Shelter is a very good cartridge and even with a poor match may be better than many MM cartridges.
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