Recommendations For New Table/Arm Under $4k

Dave,

Sorry if my last post was confusing. Hopefully this will clarify. It has been my observation for the turntable brands I listed, that an owner is highly likely to stay within the brand if they decide to upgrade. For example, I know a new Galibier Serac owner who plans to upgrade to the Gavia platter. I have observed the same phenomena for TW Acustic and Teres.

I think that this happens, because the turntable brands are uniformly excellent, owners like the particular house sound of 'their' turntable, and the trade up policies are generous for all. Importantly for a handmade item, I also feel comfortable recommending the people behind all three brands.

BTW, I bought a Stelvio with Triplanar and Dynavector XV1-S and could not be happier.

Regards,

Dear Cbd: here are some second hand options that seems to me could be very good choices:

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1219074781
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1219432217
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1219842117
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1220806879
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1221193798
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1221503755
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1221524616
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1221783544
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1221939825

For a new unit I agree too on Galibier.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

I would put in a good word here for the Rega P5, with an Exact 2 cartridge and the outboard power supply. I just purchased this combo and am very happy with it. In my opinion it is far better than any of the Project or Music Hall variations I saw recommended in this thread, particularly in regards to soundstage and imaging, which is very important to me as a listener.

I'm seconding all the recommendations for the Galibier. I received my Serac at the end of June and am very happy with it. I'll give a bit of background, which might provide a few answers to some of the questions on this thread.

Before buying the Galibier, I had an Acoustic Solid "Classic Wood," with the Acoustic Solid WBT211, which is very similar to the Jelco-based Artisan, and an upgrade from the Rega RB250 sold with that tt (the Classic Wood is not the "Wood" mentioned above, but a lower, less massive model; still, at today's prices, with the WBT arm, it costs over $4000--don't know what the "Wood" costs, but more for sure).
The Acoustic Solid is a fine turntable, but there's no comparison with the Galibier: the Serac (with the Artisan as well as the Tri-planar) has more extension, greater dynamic range, much better layering and provides quieter, deeper background. As a result, the sound is a more "solid" in all aspects.

I first heard the Serac with the Artisan arm at Thom's place in April. I auditioned it with the Serac platter and the Gavia platter; I also heard the Gavia base/platter/motor pod combo with the Tri-Planar arm (although with different cartridges: Serac with the Universe, Gavia with the Dynavector XV-1s). One thing that struck me as common among all those permutations was the quality of the background and the remarkably solid layering. Moving from Serac to Gavia platter increased the amount of detail and the differentiation between instruments in space, which is alreday remarkable with the Serac. Going to the full Gavia combo made that even more striking, although the Dynavector is so different than the Universe that I wasn't so sure who was doing what at that point (and most of my listening time was on the Serac). I didn't hear the Serac with the Tri-planar at Thom's but since that's the arm I got with my Serac, I can vouch for a great match. The Serac is really worth that great arm.

One last thing that I find particularly attractive in the case of the Galibier tts, is that one can move up incrementally to the higher models: start with a Serac base with Serac platter, then move up to Gavia platter or Gavia base (note that nobody is quite sure yet which part is best to upgrade first, the base or the platter--I know what Thom used to recommend but he's going to do some more testing), Stelvio amrboard, etc. The process is very easy and is well documented on the Galibier site--you can also see what parts are similar in all models. So you spend ca.$4000 today, get great sound, and sometime later can end up with a top-flight analog rig. I'm not comparing with other brands (I don't know who else has this type of modular approach), but that's a point very worth considering.
And, as mentioned above, it's such a treat to work with Thom!

Hope that helps...
Cheers

Jfd01,

Good report. When the dust settles and you're in the mood for a cheap, incremental upgrade, check out this thread: Uprade for users of 1/2" mylar belt"