Turntable and amp combination
Stay away from the overpriced Belt Drive junk and look for the Japanese high-end Direct Drive like brand new Technics SL1200GR ($1700) or more expensive SL1200G. You will not find anything better than this for reasonable price. Rega is not easy to setup at all. What is easy to setup is Technics with removable headshell and tonearm with VTA on the fly. |
Project Carbon Espirit is right now what I have in mind right now. I have also been steered towards Marantz. You can discover much better turntables at the same price or very close, what you're looking for at the moment is not good. Read more about Direct Drive turntables and particularly about brand new Technics models on this forum or elsewhere. For amps, do most of the people pick solid state amps for vinyl or tube? Reading your questions it's hard to understand how long you're into audio ? Solid State or Tube is endless debate, no one will tell you, no matter what source are you using (analog or digital), it is just personal preferences. I'll tell you more: when you say "tube" would you like to describe what you mean? Push-pull, single ended, what king of tubes (new or NOS) ? It is all important. Low power tube amp can't drive inefficient speakers, but they can drive high efficient speakers very well. Currently running my Yamamoto A-08s with Zu Audio Druid speakers. The best Solid State amps i ever heard are those from Nelson Pass (Fist Watt) and mine is First Watt F2J. Practically SS is better, those from Nelson Pass FIRST WATT are unique design and exceptionally good (and not expensive). |
@chakster Great advice about a Japanese made DD Technics 1200, even if it’s an older used one, but I’d personally got for a new GR, as I did. It’s a phenomenal deck for the money. Absolutely, if 1200 series then NEW G or GR, not old for sure. If old then SP-10 mkII with EPA-100 tonearm (it’s my ex). For lower budget it can be the SP-20, i just assembled one for a friend in obsidian plinth with custom armboard, saec ss-300 mat, audio union stabilizer, denon da-401 tonearm and at-ml150 occ MM cartridge, look at this beauty. |
That SP-20 came out beautifully! Phenomenal job. I immediately took screen shots to add to my audio porn pics. Thanks, here is a closeup and yet another view. I like that black custom armboard (we made) better than the original on this sh10b3 plinth. |
