Upgrade Path - Arm - ? Teres?

Spinitch,

I can't offer solid guidance because I've never heard your table. The following is my generic $.02. Perhaps someone who knows the Radius can offer something more specific.

I've tried something like your Option B by putting high end cartridges on a mid-fi (ish) table and arm. Afer the initial flush of amazement at what the cartridge could do, the experience became unsatisfactory. The cartridge revealed more about the inadequacies of the rig than it did about the music. Listening to that particular mismatch grew more distracting than enjoyable, at least for me.

I don't know if a TriPlanar would fit on a Radius but I'd be reluctant to recommend it. There isn't a more revealing/less forgiving tonearm anywhere, at least IME. If a table has ANY noise, resonance, rumble, speed or other issues a TriPlanar will expose them. That will be doubly true if you mount a good cartridge on it. (OTOH, a Teres + TriPlanar sounds magnificent even with just an entry level MM cartridge. I could listen to that kind of setup very happily.)

Between table, arm and cartridge, IME the table must be brought up to standard first, the arm second and the cartridge third. A better phono stage certainly fits in there somewhere too, but that's harder to prioritise without getting specific about makes and models.

FWIW, I vote against option B, unless it would be a pretty short term stopgap before upgrading the table.

Spinitch:

For what it is worth, I agree with Dougdeacon based on my own experience.

I followed the path of a "mid" table and arm with an excellent cartridge. While the music was very good, the table and arm were always in the mix. The better the recording the more I could hear stuff that I wanted to remove.

After about four years, I've gotten to the point that I am very happy with my table, arm, and cartridge. Now if I could just find an interconnect to go from the phono-pre to the preamp that has no buzz, hum, is detailed and accurate, I will be able to afford albums!

Best regards,

Dave

Spinitch - I generally agree with Doug and Dave, in terms of spending your budge on the table, arm and cartridge in that order. That said, I believe Teres offers a pretty compelling upgrade path (conpensating you for about 80% of the cost of your previous teres component as you upgrade throughout the Teres line). I started with a Teres 135 (no longer available), upgraded to 245 and then to 255. I hope to upgrade to 320 in the near future. This upgrade path, apart from being cost-effective, was a lot of fun and it made me realize the benefits of each change.

I don't have a ton of experience on tonearms, but I started with an OL Silver, and since moved to an Airtech MG-1 tangental air-bearing arm. This arm was quite an upgrade to the OL Silver in my humble view, and at a cheaper price (it cost me about $450 with the air pump, but I believe the price is now over $700 - but still a possible bargain). I've read very little about this arm, but would love to see it compared with some of the heavy hitters like Triplanar and Schroeder. I intend to upgrade my arm over time, but I'd feel more comfortable in pursuing such an upgrade if I knew there were material improvements to be had.

Good luck in your vinyl journey. It's a lot of fun.

Greetings,

I'd have to go with Doug as well as the other respondents in this thread.

You have a couple of interim solutions - ones where you don't have to go for the whole enchilada from the onset. Depending on which path you take, you might even be able to recover some or all of your investment as you upgrade further.

The least expensive and biggest bang for the buck would be to go with a motor upgrade like the one that Origin Live offers. I'm not certain if Chris (Teres) is still doing separate motor controllers. I have ceased to do so to inventory balancing issues. A drive system upgrade is not trivial.

Choice #2 would be to work your way into a lower end model of a turntable company who's upper echelon fuels your dreams. You might find a manufacturer with a liberal upgrade program (e.g. Teres, Galibier) ... losing little or none of your initial investment as you work your way up the food chain.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Thank you very much for confirming what I suspected. I will avoid "B". In the long run willl be better to save my $'s and invest wisely. In the meantime Roksan still sounds pretty good when compared to CDs.

Was not aware of the Teres, Galibier upgrade compensation schemes. Guess this falls into category C "other".

I should also check the offerings from similar designs like Galibier. Except for reading kind of tough living in Tokyo. Besides the mainstream high-end TTs, Avid/Amazon etc... only come across Garrards(nice but lacking on aesthetics, guess I should get over this as long as it sounds good it is good!)

Though I could afford to drop another bomb on for ex. 320, it will likely cost me double as something similar will be expected from the significant other, coz flowers not gonna cut-it. I can sneak in new tubes, albums and even the HE90's don't suggest such an outlay, but a new TT will be noticed. Each year I seem to be alloted one nice audio investment guess as concession for b-day/X-mas etc... gifts.

My phono stage is an XR-2 from Ray Samuels Audio. I will probably upgrade this last, since really just want to settle into a TT/Arm/Cart and the while the phone stage obviously affects sound as does everything in the system, the rest have little to no impact on TT physical set-up.

I would try first of all to get the most out of the Roksan Radius; Try the forum at www.roksan.co.uk/forum
That were all the roksan fans hang and can give you info on how to get the most out of it.

appreciate the referal. I just ordered the new belt(crossing my fingers this should help) and was time to replace the cart, so upgraded the Kontrapunt A to a Jubilee, this was a much more affordable way to upgrade and improvements are substantial.

I am still not thrilled with the arm but it does the job, just deters me from playing the heavier LP's due height adjustment inconvenience.

There is some vibration from motor and the wobbly drive with my worn belt concerns me on speed, though in general still sounds better than CD.