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Townshend Rock, or Sota... Classical music

Hello everyone,

I'm new on this forum, but I've been reading lots of extremely informative and interesting things here since a long time.

I'd like to ask a little advice... Since I'm maybe buying my first "serious" turntable. My priorities are clean and accurate reproduction, pitch stability, good detial retrieval (I listen almost only to classical music, and quite a lot of piano recordings).

I have following options:
- Townshend Rock Mk3 with Rega RB300 (maybe not in perfect condition, the clamp and the acryl platter are not perfectly even and there is always some up and down movement of cartridge and tonearm) - around 700 $
- Sota Star (with Papst DC motor) with Sumiko FT-3 tonearm, completely revised by a very experienced guy, vacuum and everything - around 1400 $
- Townshend Rock Reference with Excalibur tonearm, perfect - around 3000 $

The Rock Reference is a bit out of budget, but I may stretch to that. At the same time I'm really interested in the Sota with vacuum, since most of my records are bought second hand and... Well, I see that even the clamp of the Reference doesn't manage to make then really flat on the platter.

Or shall I go for a cheaper Japanese direct drive, like a Kenwood KD-990 or so?

Now I'm listening with a Beogram 8000 (Soundmith cart), a Technics SL-7, a Dual 721 - none of them really satisfying, expecially with piano or big, complex orchestral music. String quartets sound nice on the Beogram...

I know that everything depends also on cartridge and rest of the system - I'm keeping aroung 1000 $ for a new cart, and the rest of the system will come later, but quite soon.

Thanks for your advice!

Marco
mscili
rafr
21 posts
 
Marco,
I have never heard a Rock Reference, But I have a Rock 3 and lucky enough to have a Rock V. Properly set up, these are some of the best sounding TTs ever made. The tone arm dampening system may turn people off, but is very easy to use. The Rock Reference is reported to be an outstanding TT. If I were you I would get the Rock Reference. It is an incredible TT and very rare. You may not be able find another one. The Sota may be more available at a later date. When I got the Rock V, I put everything I had to get it. I, then slowly brought up the rest of my system, much like you are thinking. I have never, regretted this. Best of luck with your decision.
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,769 posts
 
Rock Reference. In a few years' time, you won't notice the extra expendature and you'll have a great turntable. It will even make a cheaper cartridge sound good so you can save there until you are ready. I heard one with ATC speakers and EICO HF60 amps and it was incredible. We played DSOTM by Pink Floyd and the blackness and bass articulation were outstanding.
mscili OP
4 posts
 
Thanks for the extra comment on the Rock Reference.
Somehow a few people (not only here) pointed me to the Sota "for classical music". I wonder if there may be any aspect in the performance of the Rock Reference which may make it more appropriate for other kinds of music than for classical - I've listened to it with symphonic repertoire and it was really good, but I don't know what the Sota would do different...
effischer
560 posts
 
FWIW, I've run my Sota Sapphire non-vacuum table since I bought it new back when. It has the external power supply. After listening to a number of other tables over the years, I haven't heard anything that would make me "upgrade" from it. My Graham arm was a revelation as was the DV XXII Mk 2. The rig performs flawlessly on jazz, rock and classical. Dead silent background. Quiet enough that even though I had an opportunity to buy a Star, the very idea of any ambient noise introduced by the vacuum pump stopped me in my tracks.

It's always best if you can do an audition and so come to your own conclusions, but that's my two cents. Good luck & happy listening either way!
mscili OP
4 posts
 
Thanks again to everyone. One more question: I didn't notice before that the Townshend Excalibur tonearm in the first version allows only one position of the cartridge in the headshell - no possibility of twisting it or moving it forward or backwards (just two simple holes...). How do you align different cartridges on such a headshell? You move the armboard all together? Or you just stick to those carts, that work with that fixed geometry?
It's kind of strange...
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