I bought a new cartridge for my old Thorens rather than buying a new TT, so I struggled with this question. I don't know the B&O, but I'd say go for the cartridge. If it doesn't work out, you still have the cartridge to put in a new TT. Good luck
A B&O cartridge would not be a very good match with modern medium mass tonearms. It is VERY low mass and requires a low mass arm, not very common nowadays. So buying a cartridge( if they still make them) with the idea of passing it to another 'table if need be may not make so much sense.
I see nothing wrong with playing your LP's on a turntable of the same vintage as your vinyl. Do it, and enjoy it. If you decide to get more into it later, I'd recommend a record cleaning machine before upgrading the turntable. Just my two cents.
I faced a similar situation several years back, when I had my old B&O turntable. I recommend selling the B&O TT on Ebay for whatever you can, and then moving on up into something easy to use, like a Rega P3 or something similar. (Don't forget that if you are getting back into vinyl, that you'll need a decent phono preamp, as well as all the cleaning supplies.)
IMHO, The B&O turntables were fine at what they were, which was a top of the line, mid-fi table. (The best thing about them was their cartridges were well enough made and had a light enough VTF, that all of my old records sounded great when I upgraded to a Basis 1400.
In case you're not aware, the B&O cartridges are significantly better than the tables were and have garnered quite a following. They are only available now through an arrangement with Soundsmith, unless you luck into a NOS(new old stock) one. The sensible route would be to move to another table that affords more options but this adventure you've embarked on isn't necessarily about sense, although if you're not careful it can be about cents.
Sell the B&O and scrape all the money together you can. Then buy a new (secondhand) recordplayer and cartridge, and spend some money, as Dean suggests, on a record cleaner.
Turntable technology, at its best, has definitely evolved since the vintage of your gear. At the affordable end, though, you may still do better with an older design (at used prices). However, if you are willing and able to spend the money, you can do much better with new designs which are constantly raising the bar on both quality and price. Ditto re: cartridges. There are some very interesting evolutions available to us at this point on both fronts.
Although the best and most expensive tt's available today are superior to anything available 25 or more years ago, I would argue that at the low- and even the mid-price level you can get better quality reproduction for less money with a vintage turntable. Many of the modern "lower end" (if you think $2500 is low end) belt drives are nothing but me-too products. If you don't want to DIY, then buy a restored and upgraded product you can just plug in and use; you'll still pay less. Dual, Garrard, Lenco, Thorens, Technics, Kenwood, Sony, etc, direct drives and idler drives come to mind. Just my $.02.
B&O TTs only take B&O carts and replacment styli are very rare and now expensive. There is another thread discussing this issue at length.
Lewm,
good point and obviously and extenstion of mine, but debatable with some of the latest improvements such as Clearaudio's magnetic bearings, for instance, that are available even on their cheaper tables. It's a fine balance at this juncture I think, with no definitive call. Personal aesthetic will feature prominently in such a choice.
good question. I don't pretend to know what theoretical advantages will, in the end, represent an improvement. just sharing the lay of the land as I see it. Perhaps a sufficiently coupled and inert platter/record interface needs no mechanical ground. My guess is there all lots o roads to Rome.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
