Quote Originally Posted by hifitommy
yeah, i am thinking the pearl is better dropped in the garbage disposal. figuratively speaking, that cart is no pearl. of course dont destroy it, give it to a needy friend. SERIOUSLY. in its price range, get a grado black and be much happier with music. for a hundred, an AT440ML is the choice or a shure m97xe.

a shure v15Vxmr can be had for $200! up the ladder to the clearaudio aurum beta. moving coil definition for mm prices and output.

the pearl is limiting you to entry level vinyl and cd sound. youve got a good tt, put a decent cart on it.

clicks and pops only detract from the music if you focus on them. focus on the music instead. it works. the 1812 on telarc should only be tried with top cartridges and tonearms. lets face it, its one of the most challenging recordings on vinyl. yeah, cd is more conducive to playing this cut without fault but more musical value comes through with analog.

there are SOME people for whom analog isnt right. for those people, ticks and pops ruin the music. they should not buy vinyl. to maintain the level of musicality of vinyl and still remain digital, go for sacd. dvda MIGHT do but i cant say.

the lowest priced rbcd player ive heard in my system is my sony ns500v ($169 shipped). it is wonderful, better than any i have had in the house, and thats quite a few. good analog or digital doesnt need to be expensive. for $2-500 a good tt can be had, same for cdps. still, at that level, vinyl will sound better overall.

let me say that at the $100 level, a cdp WILL sound better than a tt. at the $200 level, it reverses. from there up, vinyl will sound better for the same money. and the gap widens in favor of vinyl as you go up. at $1k, the difference is laughable. vinyl is hands down the winner there.

at new prices, the mmf5, at about $5-700 is unbeatable. at used pricing, its even nicer.

eleiko, what ever possessed you to unload the denon cart? and how could you base your arguement on the pearl???

dan, my friend had two nad cdps and never a prob with the transport. the dac compared on equal footing to the AA dac in the box, not bad. it worked very well with the cal sigma tubed dac, a NICE unit.

eleiko, being 6 years your senior, i DO hear the diffs and it doesnt take golden ears. it takes educated ones. that can be acquired.
Hi Tommy: I got rid of the Denon because it had over 500 hours of play time. If it was designed to play for much longer, I wasn't aware of it. I don't think the Sumiko Pearl is bad, but it can't compete with the Denon I had in extracting detail. If there's some way I could A/B the Pearl and Blue Point - there isn't - I'd do it and then buy the latter if the sound differences warranted it.