Turntable advise for an analog novice

Thanks all for the insightful feedback.

As far as the rest of my rig is concerned, its decent but frugal:

MF X-A1 Integrated amp.
MF Tube Buffer.
Parasound Zphono stage.
AMC b8 CD player.
B&W 603 speakers

I really want to get better sound out of my LPs so that's why I've been focusing on the TT. I considered the Mitchel TechnoWeight and Incognito tonearm wiring upgrades. I'm not afraid to tinker (would probably be fun) but my goal is to noticeably improve my listening experience so I'm a little worried about experimenting given my current level of knowledge.

The new TTs I've seen in my price range are:
- VPI Scout - (a bit more than I wanted to spend)
- ClearAudio Emotion
- MH MMF 7.1
- Origin Live Aurora
- Project RM 5

I'll take a look at the LP-12 as well. Any thoughts on the Technics 1200?

I would definitly prefer to get something used and I've been scanning the site for a good deal but I'm trying to make an informed decision and there seems to be a great deal to consider.

Like they say, "the journey is half the fun..."

Thanks again

Williewonka,

Since my last posting, I decided to upgrade my cartidge as a first step. Whether I upgrade my table or not, I figured I'll need a new cartridge anyway. I borrowed an old Signet just to see if it really makes a difference. I was blown away by how much more detail I was able to hear. The bass seemed a little lacking but the overall improvement was significant.

I read some of the cartridge reviews and decided to go with Sumiko BP 2. I just ordered it from MusicDirect for $299 and I should be getting it in a few days.

I'm still on the fence about upgrading the tonearm but I did find a tecnoweight/incognito upgrade combo for $335 at http://www.gcaudio.com/cgi-bin/store/showProduct.cgi?id=302.Adding VTA would be another $50. So even if I don't upgrade the table itself right now, I'll have a decent tonearm and cartridge I can reuse on my next table (whenever that might be).

Anyway, I'll let you know how the Sumiko works out.

Williewonka - The nice thing about the Incognito wiring kit is its a continuous run from the cartridge tags to the phono plugs which will take care of the "crappy Rega RCAs". No soldering required.

Cheers

Just wanted to post an update on my progress.

A couple of weeks ago, I upgraded my cart to the Sumiko BP 2. This was a huge improvement to what I was getting out of the Grado Red.

A couple of nights ago, I sat down with a glass of single malt and the Incognito rewiring kit (good thing I had the scotch). It took me about 3 hours to complete the job. The biggest challenge was threading the guy wire through the arm and pulling the new wires through. Since I was rewireing an RB250, I didn't take the arm apart as suggested so making that 90 degree turn took a while. After getting the wire through, I soldered the 4 new wires to the end and tried to pull them through. The problem I had was that the slight bulge at the soldering point would get stuck in the small hole between the bearing and the arm. It took 3 attempts to get the soldering point just right.

After that, it was pretty easy. Getting the clips on just required a steady hand. I used the heat from a match to strip the wire ends and used a wooden toothpick to hold the clip so that the connecting end would not fill with solder.

I've been listening to the results for a couple of days and so far I'm very happy with the results. The music sounds very clean and I'm hearing a lot more detail.

One thing I found was that while before I was able to toggle my phono stage between MM and MC and just get more or less signal amplification, now if I switch to MC, I get a lot of static. The cartridge I'm using is a high output MC so I guess I'm OK keeping it set to MM but I'm still wondering what the cause is.

Anyway, it was a fun project and I'm thinking my next upgrade will be the Michell Technoweight.

I'm not sure how far I should go with these upgrades, but so far, the improvement has been significant.

Regards