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Honest question about cartridge vs. turntable performance.

I’ve been a vinyl lover for a few years now and I have an ortofon black cartridge setup with an mmf 5.1 turntable with acrylic platter and speed controller. My question to all the vinyl audiophiles out there is this. How much difference does a turntable really make compared to the cartridge? Will I hear a significant difference if I upgraded my turntable and kept the same cartridge? Isn’t the cartridge 90%+ of the sound from a vinyl setup? Thank you guys in advance for an honest discussion on this topic. 
tubelvr1

Showing 1 response by williewonka

williewonka
3,110 posts
 

@tubelvr1 - since it does not look like you have settled on a solution here's what I found made the biggest improvements

  1. the phono stage - I now have a Simaudio Moon LP 5.1 RS
  2. Cartridge - I had a Denon D103 and had the cantilever & stylus upgraded by Soundsmith
  3. Upgraded the Arm to an Audiomods Series 3 (old version from 12 years ago) - which has...
    1. a one piece slver harness
    2. KLE Innovations RCA plugs

The phono stage is amazingly quiet and the arm made it possible to hear the details prpovided by the Cartridge upgrade

The MMF table is a great choice, so you should send s note to Jeff at sudiomods to see if he can make you an arm that can easilt be installed.

You will then be in a great position to hear the improvements that a new cartridge or phono stage would bring

Here’s a couple of reviews I have on my web site

Audomods Arm

KLE Innovations Absolute Harmony (Turntable)

Regards - Steve

 

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