I want to move from Rega Planar 6 help me to pick a new turntable

@ejlif thanks for sharing the experience. that is my concern with VPI, it is harder to set up properly and for some it is hard to deal with unipivot. I know they make tables with gimbal , but due to COVID it is hard to find anything that won't require months of wait. Local VPI dealer told me that they have several tables on order for 4 months already.

There is another option that local dealer is offering me

GOLD NOTE PIANOSA TURNTABLE WITH B-5.1 ARM 

What's your opinion on this one?

@smatsui Thanks. I appreciate the advice. But I don't want to be limited to Rega cartridges. My preferred stylus is Shibata and they don't make anything with this profile.

@rauliruegas I don't have anything against Rega. They make top products. It is just they don't have what I am looking for. 

@rauliruegas btw, Ive heard M.Fremer uses Technics SL-1200G now.

@sgreg1 I looked at SOTA and they make great turntables. Ironically the only turntable in my price range has Rega arm on it :)

@mgolpoor the only Rega cart that I’d consider buying is Alpheta 3.  But it is out of my price range at the moment. I prefer shibata, micro line profiles. Don’t care about elliptical. So I’d have to settle for something I don’t like from Rega carts just because I can’t adjust azimuth. 

@jerryg123 true about EAT. I ruled out Clearaudio Concept because of the USB. 

@williewonka I really don't want to go through arm upgrade rabbit hole yet :)

But music hall looks nice

@jerryg123 when I was doing research most places listed Concept as having USB. 

In fact I had Rega Aria v3. But during the move to a new house there was an accident that destroyed my $10k work computer, $3k guitar, some other staff and Aria too. Fortunately insurance covered all of that, but I still have not got a new preamp. But I compared parasound to Rega and it did not sound significantly worse. It actually sounds really good for a $500 preamp.

@shriber as I stated in my post, I think it is an awesome table and great value for money. If one does not care about azimuth or plan to use rega cartridges I would highly recommend it. It is one of the best in the price range. 
 

 But after two years I realized I need azimuth adjustment. We all have our preferences. Some must have perfect VTA setup. I don’t care about it too much. 
 

@sandthemall that’s what I’ve heard too. Also I heard that with some upgrades one can make it sound even better than 1200G. Not that I plan to, but it tells a lot about the quality. For this reason the only upgrade I might consider is to 1200G

VPI definitely matches my requirements and I do like the look of it. My only concern is unipivot arm, which I never dealt with.

I was actually thinking of upgrading amp and maybe speakers, until I’ve done my taxes and the check I own to IRS crossed all my plans for the upgrades :)

@audiotroy 

I would disagree that azimuth is only important on expensive cartridges.

Once I had to put back my DL-103 (on the ART9XA one channel broke after about 10 hours, and on previous Quintet Black cantilever broke)  I finally decided to set up azimuth.

I checked the DL-103 and the stylus was at a small degree to the surface. In fact I checked my all previous cartridges and all had stylus at an angle. 

So I put a shim under one side of DL-103. As usual I set up my cartridge with oscilloscope. But this time I actually adjusted the azimuth to minimize cross-talk on the worst channel.

After that, not only channel balance improved, but also tracking ability. While when I had this cartridge before it could not track past 70um on my Ortofon Test LP. This time after azimuth adjustment it only ever slightly distorts when tracking 100um.

It is a mechanical system, which means all moving parts are important. If stylus is not perpendicular to the surface, one side will have more wear than the other and also it might increase record wear.

Cartridges are not ideal, but it does not mean that we can't make them perform their best, even if they are not expensive one. For the same reason I don't align the cartridge sides, but rather cantilever, because it may be at an angle to the cartridge body.

I plan to get more expensive one, but now I realized that I want to have an ability to make an optimal setup. Of course I can use shim as in DL-103, but it does not sound right to me.

@mattmiller the new cartridge is the next step. In fact it all started with my cartridges adventure.

For quite awhile I had Ortofon Quintet Black S. I actually enjoyed it a lot. It actually handled surface noise better than most of cartridges I've heard, had very detailed sound at the same time. All of that ended after about 200 hours when cantilever just broke off.

I put my DL-103 and while it did not performed as good, it still was quite enjoyable.

Then I finally decided to get a better cartridge, about 3 weeks ago I've got ART9XA, which I actually enjoyed a lot. It had wider soundstage than Quintet and was as detailed as it was. I liked it a lot. But after 10 hours, one channel stopped working. I measured it and it had infinite resistance compared to the other one. I sent it back and soon will get the refund.

I put my DL-103, as mentioned before and started to think what cartridge to get. This is when I realized, to optimally set it up I want to have adjustable azimuth.

Phono upgrade is in the plans as well.

@clearthinker agree. Carts that have azimuth off should not pass the quality control. But in reality I have seen it on a carts going up to $2k. Have not checked more expensive carts. unfortunately internet started to kill local retailers and COVID  finished  them off. There are almost no stores around me that sell anything more expensive than at-vm95e :) one retailer declined to let me check the cart before I buy it. Because they will have to open the box and then it is not a new cart anymore. If I decide to buy I can return it but they will take 15% restocking fee. Unless something wrong with it. But azimuth they don’t consider as something wrong, because i should be able to adjust it on the turntable. :)

@rauliruegas I guess I have not completely understood what you said in that posts. If you mean that I can have azimuth adjustment by upgrading tonearm - it is not the path I want to take.

Here is an update. I found a local dealer who stocked Technics SL-1200GR, I went there and got it to test drive at home. I was upfront, that I am looking for an upgrade from Planar 6 and may return Technics if I won't like it. They were ok with that.

So I brought it home. Here is just first impressions.

Set up. Much easier than anything I tried before. Literally it took me 5 mins on Technics to do what it took me at lest 15 on Rega on other tables I had before. Head shell helps a lot.

I put the same Dl-103 I had on Rega and I have not bothered to set up VTA or Azimuth. Literally put cartridge, adjusted overhang, verified that it lined up with protractor (by naked eyes no tools used) and that was it.

Then I went to listen few records. The setup was absolutely the same as with Rega.

I was a little bit unprepared to what I heard. I was expecting to carefully listening to all the details and look for some barely noticeable changes in sound. I was wrong. Big time.

Immediately I heard, much better low end. With Rega it was good, I could hear bass guitar, kick drum, etc. With Technics I hear them being played. Not just that there is bass guitar, but that it is being played, with all nuances. Attack, Release, transients. It was very apparent. 

Then I noticed more details. Especially on my beloved Dire Straits first album. As you may have heard Mark Knopfler plays with fingers instead of pick. And on Technics it was very clear. I am a guitar player myself and I know what to look for and indeed all that little dynamic nuances only possible when played with fingers were there.

I will continue to listen, but to be honest I am shocked. I was not expecting it to be that different.

I then ask my wife to listen to that table. She is no audiophile and to some extent a bit skeptical. But she immediately told me that it sounds better.