What is the best tonearm for a SOTA Nova turntable?

I'd like to resurrect the analog system as I have read that I'm missing out not using it.

My question is, where can I make the most improvement for the least cash outlay?

I'd like to keep the SOTA table, but everything else is expendable.

Thanks in advance for some help.

Lol…
I sent Donna and Christian some funds for a rebuild.
I was leaning towards a Korf tone arm, but I stumbled upon a used Schroder CB-9.

But just adding a Garrott bros p77i cartridge had it singing with the old SAEC tone arm and also I added a Korf head shell. That combo, and some DIY phono cable is < $1000, and it’s not bad, and uses the existing MM front end.

 

OK real talk time. Maybe try great MM cart. The SUT is not the strong point of your Allnic. Keep everything same and try a Nagaoka MP500 or whatever else floats your boat similar?

Hana is OK too, not great but very even handed.

As we know I have a cartridge to pick up and, some arm board drilling and tonearm setup.

But…

What other MM/MI carts do recommend? Or are they all OK - and just different flavours?

I had pretty good luck with the Garrott Bros p77i, and some of the SoundSmith carts caught my eye, but I did not get a listen to any of them.

Or do you mainly do MC and prefer not to opine?

You guys are pretty eager to spend my funds.😁 …

I had an ifi phono stage on my list for a while.
Never got a listen to it, but the reviews were good and the price was low.

In the end, I ended up spending a bit more… but at that end it seemed like a consideration. The Sutherland units were also on my list a bit higher up.

I was replacing an ARC PH2… which was really pretty good in terms on MM with no loading options.

@ghdprentice 
I believe that the PH2 gain is 42dB, but it seems like it sounds pretty good.
Just it does not seem like enough gain for many newer MC carts.

Maybe I should have stuck with it?
(But I can always use it in the shed if I get another TT.)

I spoke to Donna today, and she still recommends the Origin live tonearm.

I found out that there are a number of upgrades for my 30 year old SOTA for about $3000 total, but I'll still have a 30yo turntable. I'm stepping back a bit, and considering that it will cost me a fortune to get the analog system to sound anywhere near as good as my digital. So, I'll see how it sounds with the Kiseki cartridge, and decide whether to go forward from there or give up.

Maybe hold off for a bit.
Mine is a 38 yr old TT… well 38 years ago a month ago.

I got the full kit from Donna, and a workmate and I will do some measurements after I install the gear.

I’m intending to write up how it works.

What table do you own?

@gyneguy225
Hi John,
it is a SOTA Sapphire. I spent months looking and listening and the receipt says 8/8/84.

There is no dishonour is not rushing into it.

And the old setup was pretty nice, so the extra $ may not translate into a night-n-day difference.
Personally I would keep Sutherland on the table of consideration, a friend had an Origin Live arm… for a while.

What do you not like about the sound compared to your digital side?
Knowing that could help.

I don’t think it will cost you a fortune. I would do the table upgrades. Then see where you are… a used Audio Research PH8 would really upgrade your analog end. I would imagine that would be around $8K. Then if it isn’t there a cartridge for $3K. 

I sprung for the TT rebuild.

But I am not sure I would spend 8k$ on a phono stage without figuring out if the arm is a keeper or not.

And realistically just a new head shell and MM cart totally transformed many of the aspects of what was wrong with the system… and that was <1k$.

I think listening and then going from there is a wise move to ease into it.

But then again I looked at my age and at the calendar and thought, I best enjoy this stuff now. 

Btw, my expectation was the $8K was for both the rebuild ($3K) plus the purchase of a used ARC PH8 ($5K) phono stage. I am not sure that would change @Holmz comments… but that was what I intended to say.

I got it, but it’ll be north of 10k with the cartridge…

I cannot comment on whether the rebuild is needed or is a good idea.
(I ordered it, but it is not in yet.)

However my TT sounds pretty good still, with just a cart and new head shell. And I am not not sure one needs a high $ phono stage unless a LOMC is in the picture.

so as he already has a cart to listen to, then we should await the conclusions.

Re Mijostyn’s advice on purchasing a current driven phono stage:  (1) That’s a fine idea if you plan to limit yourself to LOMC cartridges with internal resistance preferably less than 12 to 15 ohms, the lower the better, and (2) my own experience with a BMC MMCI ULN Signature phono stage suggests it is superb but not necessarily better than high end voltage driven phono stages with high gain, for listening to the aforementioned LOMC, low internal R cartridges. Not inferior but also not definitively superior.  In a final attempt to be absolutely clear, I don’t hear anything that tells me current drive is going to take over the universe.  But it will assume an important place therein.

@lewm agree.
However I do find it compelling that the cartridge, and dynamic microphones, are Maxwell like in that the one generates a current by a magnetic field changing within a coil.
And the speaker is the inverse of that.
So it seems, totally on the kindergarten surface, like it should be current based amplification from one end to the other.
But then Ohm’s law sort of says that we can do it by envisioning it using voltage.
(that is an aside)

My Kiseki purple heart cartridge arrived this afternoon. I hope that it lives up to its reputation. I'll mount it and do some listening tomorrow.

I've been browsing used turntables, and rebuilding my Sota nova for $3000 is looking better. Tonearms are pretty pricey as well. I considered a VPI. I saw a VPI Prime 21 3d gimbaled tonearm with tonearm weight for $3650. It's tempting to go for something new but I'm somewhat attached to my linear tracking arm with an air bearing suspension. 

I guess it all depends on how the new cartridge sounds.

Has anyone here some experience with VPI tables?

Cheers,

John

No VPI experience. But if you like your SOTA, then let’s see how the Kiseki works, and decide later-like you mentioned.

At least one site says;

The magnets + coils assembly constitutes a miniature current generator

I doubt that a new table or arm, or phono stage is going to fix these deficiencies unless I spend a whole lot of money.

@gyneguy225 I have not heard “Cantata Domino” but I have the other one on both LP and later I got the CD.
I would be listening to those at shops with TTs.
Which is what I did back in the day when I was shopping for gear… going from shop to shop with some LPs in hand.

i suspect that you are correct with the whole lot of money part, so it may be better to not pursue it. Digital can sound great.

Holmz, you could change the predicate of that sentence you quoted to …”constitutes a miniature voltage generator “, and the sentence would be equally correct or incorrect. It’s the impedance at the interface that determines whether you’re in current mode or voltage mode,

@lewm

Yeah - but technically it is a current device. I does not become a voltage device until we apply Ohm’s law and force the current across an impedance.

… and apart from the special case of a LOMC cartridge with very low internal resistance driving a current mode phono input with an even lower input impedance, downstream devices drive a high input impedance, in voltage mode.

I agree… but down at the speaker that is also a current device.

I get how they are voltage controlled, but I always pondered the fact that a dynamic microphone and cart are current devices on the incoming side, and a speaker is a current device on the outgoing side.

I am only saying that it makes me do a chin-scratch.