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New user phono question. Comes with free story.

So once upon a time I saved a record player from the trash.  It don’t think it was anything special as those things go, but it was much beloved by me.  It was the first, and until recently, the only “system” I had ever heard that made me understand why people sit and spend hours just listening to music.. And did I ever put in the hours.  I was in school then, and time was a luxury I had.  That little record player spun so much that it eventually started spinning faster and faster until I couldn’t listen to it.  Without the knowhow to repair it, or the money to replace, it went into the trash with the intention to replace it.. Someday... Then came wife, then came kids.

Fast forward 15 years, and it occurred to me one morning that I had the time to listen to music again.  To me the choice of media was obvious.  I had fallen in love with vinyl, and it was time to rekindle the love afair.  That was about two months ago. It all started innocently enough, borrowing dusty components from be basements of friends and family to cobble something together that would reproduce sound. It was okay, but the first attempt didn’t come close to the sound I remembered.  From there I started shopping for better components and things spiraled out of hand rather quickly.

So far, I’ve bought an old Sony PS-X6 turntable with a Sure M95-ED cartridge, a Technics SU-V6 amp, and a set of Vaughn Triode speakers.  I wanted to encourage my kids to use the stereo too, so to make it more convenient, I decided to add a digital source.  That wound up being Amazon music, a Lavaudio blue-tooth adapter, and a Denifrips Ares II.  And this brings me to the problem.
 

The digital source sounds better, as in WAY better.  On digital, listening gives me that first date butterflies feeling every time, and I just want to turn it up, and up some more.  On vinyl there is just less, less of everything.  Now I am at a cross roads.  I have to decide weather to put more money into the vinyl or just abandon a few hundred pounds of records which I have recently discovered are all available in very nice quality digital anyway.  This finally brings me to the question.  Budget is a concern for me and I’m wondering if I have just fluked into some equipment that under-performs on records, or dollar for dollar, is it just harder to get performance from vinyl?  Do you think it would be realistic to get to the performance of the digital side of the system for say, a $1000 investment, or is that just a pipe dream?  I already have an integrated MC phono stage, so maybe I should try another cartridge?

If you’ve read this far. Thanks!

128x128justin572

Showing 5 responses by dogberry

dogberry
576 posts
 

Fredericton? A bit too far then.

The bias against cheap MCs is because MM and MI cartridges sound very good, and for an MC to beat them it usually will be a good deal more expensive. They are harder to make, and much harder to make so that they sound better.

dogberry
576 posts
 

No question about it, you can make vinyl outperform a CD.  I'll assume the amp and the speakers are OK since the CD uses them too, and you like the CD sound.

So that leaves us to think about the table, the cartridge, the setup of the cartridge, and the phono section of your amp. It's cheap and easy to check your turntable speed with a strobe app on your phone and the markings on the side of your platter. Also free to check the setup of the cartridge, tracking weight needs a $25 stylus gauge from Amazon, but overhang and VTA are simple (print off a protractor from the web if one did not come with the TT). VTA is a possible culprit if your sound is too thin. Did the cartridge come with the table? Used? If used, how many hours on the stylus? These could all be looked at before jumping into a new cartridge or an outboard phono section. With your budget, I'd probably not try to get into MC cartridges. A decent MM (I like Shure), or MI (eg Nagaoka MP-110) will be enough to murder a CD. Everyone has their favourite makes and models. Don't rush into it, as simply throwing money at things often doesn't work, but don't give up either. Remember what it was that captivated you. You can get it again.

 

dogberry
576 posts
 

Justin,

I’d doubt you’ve harmed any of your records playing them a few times at 2g. But if the past owner was careless about that, what else was he not paying close attention to? If that cartridge has been run for hundreds of hours at 2g it probably isn’t performing too well any more. I don’t see the purpose in repeating the previous owner’s mistake and setting it back to 2g. The only real rule is the manufacturer’s recommendation.

I was going to point out to the CD fans that it’s possible to spend thousands on a CD player/DAC and still find that vinyl involves you more. I bought, after many expensive errors an Ayre C-5xe, their last multi-format disk player. It cost about 8kCDN in 2005, and it’s still the best CD/SACD player I’ve heard. But I choose to play records rather than CDs or SACDs. And at that time I was using an RP3 and a Shure V15 VxMR (maybe a quarter of the CD player's cost). That made me go full time back into vinyl. But then I saw you had proved it for yourself with your brother’s turntable.

I’d replace that cartridge if I were you. Something like a Nagaoka MP-110 will cost you $150 and should be enough to do the job. Buy a Spin Clean for $80 and use it. Those would be my recommended first steps and I’d want to know the results before spending a penny more of your money. We don’t know for sure if the rest of your bargain Sony is performing as it should yet.

dogberry
576 posts
 

Justin - I just read the replies in between mine. Where in NB are you?

dogberry
576 posts
 

I'm in NS.

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