To those with multiple tables/arms/cartridges


How do you 'play' your system?
For 30 years I had only one turntable, one arm and one cartridge......and it never entered my mind that there was an alternative?
After upgrading my turntable nearly 5 years ago to a Raven AC-3 which allowed easy mounting of up to four tonearms......I decided to add two arms.
RAVEN
A few years later I became interested in Direct Drive turntables and purchased a vintage 30 year old Victor/JVC TT-81 followed shortly after by the top-of-the-line TT-101 and I designed and had cast 3 solid bronze armpods which I had lacquered in gloss black.
TT-101
By this time I had over 30 cartridges (both LOMCs and MMs) all mounted in their own headshells for easy interchange.
STORAGE

Every day I listen to vinyl for 3-4 hours and might play with one cartridge on one arm on one table for this whole day or even two or three days.
I then might decide to change to a different arm and cartridge on a the same table or perhaps the other.....and listen to the last side I had just heard on the previous play.
I am invariably thrilled and excited by the small differences in presentation I am able to hear....and I perhaps listen to this combination for the next few days before again lusting after a particular arm or cartridge change?

Is this the way most of you with multiple cartridges/arms listen?......or are there other intentions involved?
128x128halcro

Showing 2 responses by timeltel

Regards, Halcro (Suteetat, nicely written):

If it is accepted that taste is developed and sustained through exposure to a variety of musical forms or presentations, then it might subsequently be proposed that taste is an integral element in the selection of both composition and supporting gear. If objective evaluation can define value, it might also be said the consequence is an exclusivist mentality and a rigid hierarchy of the acceptable. Some would find such a definition of rewarding experience unnecessarily restrictive. Others maintain that if what is heard does not reflect the intent of the composer then the result is an artificial construct, a facsimile and thereby of diminished value.

This may be seen as a failure to reproduce technically accurate aspects of audible response or, contrarily, an openness to a variety of experience as desired by the particular expectations of the individual. Who would be so bold as to state the reproduction of recorded music in the home is exclusively a scientific demonstration, or that it is solely an expression of art?

There are those who are to be admired for developing their systems to the apex of refinement, listeners who exhibit a marvelous degree of discrimination. Others, of acknowledged (or self-proclaimed) discernment, might choose from the menu of available cartridges a variety of presentational aspects.

If familiarity with a number of carts illustrates the qualities of each, the differences either subtle or bold, and assuming an acceptable level of performance of each, then friend Henry, I'm happy to join you in enjoying a smorgasbord of carts.

Cliff's Notes: There are favorite carts, of which I wish to continue to enjoy an appreciation of their particular qualities.

Peace,
Regards, Halcro: Good to hear you're enjoying the Frankencart. If given a name, as is sometimes done, Serendipity would be appropriate. Like John Bunyan's hero Pilgrim, some wander, hoping for a certain destination but meanwhile find the way strewn with lessons.

Fifteen or so varieties of headshells here, just an enthusiast. If audio aficionados were to be described as univores/omnivores----

Peace,