Seeking turntable upgrade advice

Madfloyd,

We first met because your system was unable to reproduce full harmonics without distortion (as Riley804 obviously remembered). I assumed you wanted to reduce the distortions while retaining the harmonics. Sorry if I misunderstood.

As you said, we demonstrated during your visit that there are no serious harmonic distortions from your present vinyl rig. Nor are there any with Nick's preamp, as you know from hearing ours (best DSOTM you've ever heard, or so you said).

Your last email indicated you're still hearing the same distortions, and the harmonic capabilities of the Alaap have highlighted them if anything. Since the problem's not with your source components or preamp, it's presumably with amps, speakers or room. However, if a simpler, cleaned up sound is more appealing than working on those, then almost any SS preamp will provide it. If you want a really good one, Raul's Essential 3160 is the best I've heard (though in fairness there are many I haven't).

Regarding a new rig, the SME arms would be well aligned with the above strategy, because they're less transparent to harmonics than the TriPlanar, Graham Phantom or a Schroeder. A very damp arm like a IV or V should pass fewer harmonics to be distorted elsewhere in the system and provide a cleaner, more manageable sound.

As for VTA on-the-fly, if your system isn't geared to the full reproduction of harmonics it's doubtful you'll get much benefit. With any good cartridge (including your XV-1S), the main effect of varying VTA/SRA is to properly integrate the fundamental of a note with its harmonics. If a system reproduces fewer harmonics, altering VTA has less effect. Given the goals I summarized above, I wouldn't place on-the-fly VTA anywhere near the top of the list of needs in a tonearm.

As for turntables, the SME and Raven are both fine choices. Pretty hard to go wrong with either one. Buy whichever one you like the looks/price of and which is available in your time frame. SME table/arm synergy and the chance to work with a single dealer might tip the balance.

Hope it works out,
Doug

I'd forgotten (or maybe didn't notice) that difference between the Steely Dan playbacks. Proof again that it helps to do these auditions with familiar LP's. If we'd played one of our records it might have jumped out at me.

Given that, I understand your TT/arm upgrade plans. Galibier and Raven are both excellent choices and, as Sonofjim said, probably better value for money than SME. Sonically I don't think there's much difference between Dan's Gavia and my 320. A 265 is a step down however (we owned one before the 320). The bigger tables do provide stronger dynamics and a blacker background. If you have the cash...

I'm not sure I understand everything you're saying about harmonics, but my take-away is that you're suggesting I get a less than detailed tonearm because my system or room can't handle harmonics.

Pretty much.

Until you address the cause(s) of those distorted harmonics, which arose months ago and which still exist AFAIK, buying a tonearm that will send even more harmonics into the signal path seems counterproductive.

I expect a TriPlanar will do exactly what the Alaap did – introduce more harmonics into your present system/room than it can handle.

What gives you impression I have distorted harmonics in my system, Doug? You haven't heard it... I'm confused.

In your own words (unless there's another Ian who has a VPI/XV-1S and just bought and sold an Alaap)...

From your email to me dated 3/27:
"I have not gotten rid of the 'ringing' in my TT, but I did call VPI and ask their opinion, expecting them to tell me I needed to upgrade my arm, but they insisted that my JMW 9 Sig was just fine and that the problem was VTF. They had me increase it to 2.5g (Dynavector XV-1s). It was a significant improvement. The ringing is still there, but much fainter."

As we heard with your TT/arm/cart in my system, your rig actually produces clean harmonics. The "ringing" comes from other components which can't handle those harmonics.

From your email to me dated 3/27:
"If I listen over 80db I get ear fatigue rather quickly; I think the extra harmonics are a little harsh sounding. I get tons of bloom and my impressions are that it's not as clean and imaging is not as good (it's as if the bloom causes images to overlap)."

No other Alaap owner has ever complained of that. Sounds like ringing in the system/room to me.

From your email to me dated 4/1 (regarding your Doshi):
"Distortion. While I absolutely adore the bloom and huge soundstage, I can't listen to this louder than 70 db without ear fatigue. If I play something at 80 db it drives people out of the room (it sounds like it's over 100db). It's lovely with jazz and folk at lower volumes, but it adds so much in the way of harmonics that anything recorded with harmonics gets noisy very fast."

Likewise.

... while the 265 may be step down from the Galibier, Reven, your 320 (and maybe SME?), would it still be a step up from my Scoutmaster considering it allows me to change the tonearm?

Yes, I'd say so.

Being able to use a TriPlanar is a notable step up.

Resonance control will be better. We never had your "ringing" with our 265. The 320 provides even blacker backgrounds, but the 265's no slouch.

The motor is good, though not quite as quiet or as powerful through transients as our Reference II motor. (There were QC problems from the motor supplier on some Reference II's, one reason Chris doesn't sell 320's any longer.)

If you go with any Teres or Galibier belt drive, the belt we use is a huge improvement over the stock belt. Also, last week we found a $60 tweak to the battery power that makes a major improvement in both background noise and dynamics. Our system now sounds notably better than what you heard.

Speaking of cheap but effective tweaks, I agree with Thom. You're going so fast (fun though it may be) that you're missing chances to learn. Example: you sold the Alaap largely because its harmonic richness overpowered other components (apparently including the VPI). We both know that wasn't the Alaap's "fault", and when you get a non-ringy table you may miss it. You'll never know how good it would have sounded (unless you buy another one). I'm not suggesting you have to like the same preamp I do. I'm suggesting you have no real idea whether you'd have liked it or not. All you know is that it showed up minor flaws in a pretty good vinyl rig in a major way, and that it doesn't do so with other rigs.

Upgrade one thing at a time, and don't upgrade it again until you're sure its a WEAK link. Take time to learn what your components can (and can't) do.

Care to guess how many TT's, tonearms, preamps, amps, wire and speakers we've had in six years? Just two of each, roughly one major component upgrade every six months. There've been a zillion minor tweaks in between, many of which have provided improvements as big as any component change (like our new battery charger). But those tweaks would never have happened if we'd been swapping gear so fast we didn't have time to understand it.