Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

Joe Mac said:
Woah! A turntable with no VTA, azimuth or even tracking force adjustment so you’re stuck with that rebadged low level AT forever and ever unless you life messing with shims and the look of blue tack on top of your headshell. Not to mention the insane US pricing levels. That’s an eccentric recommendation!
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He says the details and harmonics compared to the debut carbon are a Night and day and listening to the sound demo id agree but I know everyones stance on YouTube sound demos
 
Joe Mac said:
Woah! A turntable with no VTA, azimuth or even tracking force adjustment so you’re stuck with that rebadged low level AT forever and ever unless you life messing with shims and the look of blue tack on top of your headshell. Not to mention the insane US pricing levels. That’s an eccentric recommendation!
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Also I think it's mostly because
1. Good tonearm so sound hits more even with conical stylus (I drank audiophile koolaid so I believe this shit)
2. Much cheaper in other countries
3. Plug and play experience

But he also majorly criticizes other things most people here disagree with, saying how nagaoka mp110 is better than the ortofon cartridges and the MP 200 bring better than the Hana EL (I'll debate that once I get the money for better turntable, preamp, and cartridge in like 2 years
 
duke86fan said:
Also I think it's mostly because
1. Good tonearm so sound hits more even with conical stylus (I drank audiophile koolaid so I believe this shit)
2. Much cheaper in other countries
3. Plug and play experience

But he also majorly criticizes other things most people here disagree with, saying how nagaoka mp110 is better than the ortofon cartridges and the MP 200 bring better than the Hana EL (I'll debate that once I get the money for better turntable, preamp, and cartridge in like 2 years
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I think the limitations on the tonearm outweigh the benefits because you’re in a closed system, there is no upgrade potential. Even here where the price is fair. I could see the argument here more for the 2/3/6 on that basis with our pricing, not with yours though. Also, to be fair nearly all these entry level tables we are talking about come with a mounted cart so are plug in and play.

I think most people here would pick a nagaoka over an ortofon? I’d likely be running a MP300/500 now if the price in Europe wasn’t insane! Cant comment on Hana, they’re not on my radar, my MC experiment is likely to be the AT OC9XML.
 
duke86fan said:
Except hifi magazines

I mean I am thinking of maybe a 110 as well from one sound demo but both the 110 and the blue seem pretty good
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The blue is a solid cartridge and you’ll like it I’m sure. I did I just wanted something else. The MP110 gets good press too so I’m sure neither is a wrong call.
 
duke86fan said:
Hivinyws will tell you to get a P1 instead of a fluance or project

Something about cartridge not being the end all be all the rega tonearms infamous quality even though the cartridge is just a rebranded audio technica (audiophile man suggests a project instead for the us but that's more because he has no experience with fluance 85 and he is talking the under 300 range)
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A P1 has no adjustable anti skate and a counterweight with a built in “stop” that’ll prevent use of some cartridges. This is horrible advice. It’s a $200 table for $475.
 
HiFi Guy said:
A P1 has no adjustable anti skate and a counterweight with a built in “stop” that’ll prevent use of some cartridges. This is horrible advice. It’s a $200 table for $475.
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Never said I agreed

I agree that import price is bad
 
dbarila said:
Ok. I know I asked this recently but I have a more specific budget of $500. Would anynof these be worthwhile upgrades at the price of will I basically be seeing diminished returns?

Current system: U-Turn with Grado Blue, Schiit Mani, Onkyo TX-8020, Elac Debut B6. Squeaky Clean RCM.

Here are some things I'm considering

Upgrade record cleaner to Pro-Ject VC-E

Upgrade amp. Haven't done a ton of research but the Cambridge AXR100 looks nice.

Upgrade Turntable. Fluance RT85 looks nice but I'm not sure if it's much of an upgrade.

Upgrade multiple components. Like a Vincent PHO-8 and 8mz stylus.

Something else?

Nothing. Save my money?
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AnthonyI said:
I think the Pho8/8MZ will give you the most bang for your buck if you're really looking to spend money, but let me ask, is there something you don't like about your current set up?

I ask because you're kind of in "no mans land" in a lot of respects, there's nothing really wrong with any of your components, but if your looking for an overall "better" system I would maybe save and make more meaningful jumps rather than smaller "leap-frog" moves....but that would again depend on if you have a more long term path in mind or not.
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@dbarila fwiw my system is very similar to yours Grado Gold 2 w/8mz stylus -> U-Turn -> Schiit Mani -> Kenwood KR 3130 -> Elac Debt 6.2 and a Squeaky Clean RCM and my generally thoughts around upgrades right now are just as @AnthonyI said: hold until I can do some things that REALLY make a difference (unless something breaks). I figure that I'll start the process towards an endgame system in a few years and at that point I'll start at the front of the chain.

In terms of what you listed, the 8mz upgrade for me was great, but it was out of necessity after my other stylus broke. An upgrade to a better RCM is on my mind too, as are upgrading some speaker cables from my cheapy Amazon ones. But right now I'm not in a rush to make any changes.
 
trickyseven said:
@dbarila fwiw my system is very similar to yours Grado Gold 2 w/8mz stylus -> U-Turn -> Schiit Mani -> Kenwood KR 3130 -> Elac Debt 6.2 and a Squeaky Clean RCM and my generally thoughts around upgrades right now are just as @AnthonyI said: hold until I can do some things that REALLY make a difference (unless something breaks). I figure that I'll start the process towards an endgame system in a few years and at that point I'll start at the front of the chain.

In terms of what you listed, the 8mz upgrade for me was great, but it was out of necessity after my other stylus broke. An upgrade to a better RCM is on my mind too, as are upgrading some speaker cables from my cheapy Amazon ones. But right now I'm not in a rush to make any changes.
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@dbarila one more thing I just thought of that I haven't done yet but might is a power conditioner. Not so much because I think it will improve the sound, but should protect everything in case of disaster. Don't know if you've given any thoughts to that.
 
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