2. analog
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please help with new purchase

My home is very modern...hard woods, Floor to ceiling glass windows(11 ft), and lots of natural stone. In short, very bright sound. I like great sound but i don't like stacks of equipment. As well I live in a resort town which is a 6 hour drive to the nearest hi end audio dealer so I don't have the luxury going back and forth from dealers trying out turntables. My budget is $2500. I have a McIntosh integrated amp with phono inputs. my question is.....should I just go out and by a Rega P3 for $600 and be done with it for a year or so to see if I really like the vinyl sound? Or have you found that really thats a waste of time and money because I will just want to upgrade to a better unit shortly after. In short, I am trying to get a sense of whether or not the addition of a tuntable can be a simple process.....or will I be creating a monster (wanting to start tweaking and buying complement products).
csmithbarc

Showing 2 responses by newbee

newbee
4,811 posts
 
Personally, I'd get the Rega. Its a good starting point. You won't have too much invested if you find the hassle of vinyl is too much for you. If you really enjoy the sound of vinyl and the music available to you in that medium, you can always upgrade and become more anal about the quality of the components, and more importantly the set up and maintenance, at a latter date.

Be sure, starting out, to get a cartridge that is somewhat forgiving of set up errors and, especially, VTA settings. Do not start out with a line source stylus. Also make sure the cartridge's output matches the Mac's phone stage gain.

Have fun!
newbee
4,811 posts
 
Csmithbarc,

Cartridges have varing levels of output, from low output MC's to high output MM's. If you use a high output MM cartridge just about any phono stage will have enuf gain, but many built in phono stages are not high gain and cannot drive low to medium low output cartridges. You need to make sure the amount of gain you have in your phono section is enuf for the amount of output from the cartridge.
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