Should I buy an SME 30/12A for 15K?
I am a vinyl newbie with maybe 100 LPs (or less) in my collection. I have had a Technics SL1210GAE for past 2 years, I just plugged and played it. It’s good but my digital is almost as good or sometimes better.
I recently heard a SME 30/12A at the dealer’s, and it blew my mind, and my digital was no where close (the dealer had almost the same digital -- mine is Nagra Tube DAC, his was the Nagra HD DAC -- and we did on spot comparison, not an apples to apple of course but still best that we could under the circumstances).
Now given my relative inexperience with vinyl (I know next to nothing about setup), should I plunge for this offer which is offered to me at 1/3rd the retail price and probably an endgame TT for me.
Thoughts?
Also, is this as great an offer as I think it is, are there better TTs at 15K$ retail price (I cannot/will not buy used) than the SME 30/12A?
That's a fantastic bargain. If you buy it you're set for life. I assume it has a Series V arm. Is the dealer throwing in the fitted cartridge too? If not, you'll need to make sure you have a worthy cartridge and phono stage. I have two SME 10 TTs, and they are plenty good enough for me. You'd be getting a 30 for the same price I paid for them. |
I shall put my flame-proof pants on and utter the opinion that I feel a cartridge can make more difference than a TT. Sure, the world's best cartridge (I believe we already decided that question...) can't show how good it is with a poor TT, and vice versa. If you brought that SME home and put the Nagaoka on it, you would not hear what you heard at the dealership. Nor would you if you put that Clearaudio pickup on the Technics. If you get the SME, you pretty much have to get the best cartridge you can to go with it. Then neither one holds back the other. |
Good Lord, this is going off base. The OP wants to know if a respected ("ultimate-level" for most of us) TT with arm for a quarter of the usual price is a bargain. It plainly is bargain of the century. @essrand Do let us know what you decide to do. |
