$800 Cartridge Shootout and Upgrade Path

You mean, you think, that it's possible that Artar is actually "Listening to Music" instead of hanging out here on the audiothreads!!! For shame! He's the one that got us into this mess in the first place. I'm still wrangling with work to take the time off to go to Denver to hear the Galibier and Teres tables. After a year of research I have decided that one of those tables is gonna be mine. At this point it looks like I'll be waiting on a Schroeder Model 2 tonearm to match with it. Then I will sit around listening to music and ignoring the black hole of the internet that sucks up so much of my time never to be seen again.....

Hello all!

First let me say a Merry Christmas, a bit late I know, and a Happy New Year!

Well, several things have kept me away from the keyboard and this thread. The first was my workload, which had been extreme leading up to Christmas. The second was a bit of an emotional let down, so to speak, after I had made both my analog decisions and analog purchases. (Yes indeedy, I bought a bunch of stuff!). The third was Thomas Scheu’s death, which cast a long shadow over everything analog. And finally, I was unexpectedly saddened by the shocking events surrounding the Tsunami disaster in Southwest Asia. Only now do I feel like writing, and then I don’t quite have the same level of enthusiasm as before. But in a week or two I am sure all of that will change.

Oakiris,

So you started out with three grand and blew by that number! Well, welcome to the big spenders club! What do you mean by being realistic? Just go for it, right? If you like the Teres 255 buy it. It’s one hell-of-a turntable, and that’s for sure. If you can’t afford the Teres, wait until you can. Settling for less will only cost you more money in the long run. If you have a turntable, then go for what you really want instead of accepting something that will soon be replaced.

What did I buy? Well I bought this:

Eurolab Premier MKII Turntable
Morech DP-6 Tonearm with a Precision Red-dot Arm Tube
Nelson Pass Xono Phono Stage
Billy Bags Equipment Rack

I will write more about this later. I am running out of time tonight to go into any more details.

Cheers!

Artar - sorry about misspelling your name several times.
:-o

Glad to know you are still in the universe. The Asian tsunami is indeed a major catastrophe - the death toll is over 125,000 now. I agree that it certainly puts in perspective the search for audio nirvana in the face of such a tragedy.

You have built yourself a very nice system; I hope your enjoyment of audio returns. What cartridge did you end up getting? (I mean, that WAS the focus of this thread, right?!? :-) I know, it went rather far beyond the cartridge.)

I visited Chris at Teres Audio yesterday and I have actually decided on the Teres 160 turntable with an Origin Live Silver tonearm. Not sure about the cartridge yet - I may have to get "cheap & cheerful" until I can afford something better. We'll see!

Oakiris, a "cheap and cheerful" setup for that rig could easily be a Denon DL103R and a HiFi tonearm mod. That is a really nice combination on the Teres/OL Silver rig, and I have used it myself for almost a year before moving to my present Shelter 501.

There are a number of users of this combo here on the Audiogon forum, and it is very satisfying for only a small sum of money. Total of about $275, as long as your phono stage can handle the low 0.27mv output of the DL103R.

You can read about this in my review of the DL103R in the product review section, and also some other users' info in the archives. The OL Silver will perform much better with this cartridge when my HiFi mod is utilized. This can be read about in the "Strange Tonearm Tweak" thread in the analog archives, and the thread describes the DIY process for you to make yourself very easily and cheaply. If you have questions, you may email me about it when I return from CES. I am the inventor of this mod, and can answer any of your questions about it. I'm sure that the many HiFi mod users on this forum will be happy to tell you how it improved their sound quality for practically no money.

With the Teres 160 and an OL Silver, it would be nearly impossible to get a better sound for your money than to use a DL103R and a HiFi mod on the arm. I've been around the block with this, and I'm not blowing smoke.

twl - Thank you for the "thumbs up" for my choices; I'm sure upgraditis will set in at some point down the line, but from what I have read and heard, I will be happy with this combo for quite some time. Chris of Teres also suggested that I use your mod for the OL Silver tonearm! Now I have to find the Denon 103R cartridge. I have found the cartridge at AudioCubes. Is there any other place that sells them new for the US market?