Musical Hall or Rega

[JohnMichael]

My first turntable was a marble based Kenwood and the store included a Shure M91ED for $0.99. I have never paid over $600 for a phono cartridge or $600 for a phono preamp. My current table when new was about $495. Of course as you add cost of upgrades it's cost is much greater than original purchase price.

I own an Audio Technica F7 low output moving coil cartridge. When I first installed it I thought what a good budget LO MC. Several mods later I reinstalled it and was pleased with how much better the cartridge sounded. Since the first time using it I updated the motor with the 24V and Michael Lim braces. Since the table improved sonically so did the cartridge.

I agree with Mr Peabody that you need a good turntable first. Using the low vibration motor, machined subplatter, ceramic bearing and top and bottom braces the noise floor dropped and when there is less noise there is more music.

As far as a phono preamp I have a budget recommendation. This is from my experience using Ortofon OM 10's and 20's. The Cambridge Audio 650P which is now the 651P does a very nice job for the money with the Ortofon cartridges. If you have no interest in ever trying LO MC cartridges you could even go with the 551P. There was one review where for high output cartridges such as your Blue they liked the 551P even better. Some designers believe it is better to have a single gain stage in their preamps. I think this is true at the budget end. Two warnings is the 650P sounds less good when the subsonic filter is used and it does not have enough gain for low output moving coil cartridges. I would say anything below .4 mv and dynamics suffer.

I would also check out Musical Fidelity's entry level phono preamp. Creek is another brand worth checking out. It all depends on your budget and how much you want upgrade in the future. Can you see yourself ever buying a $2,000 cartridge? There are a lot of ways to spend your money and if I had more of it I might upgrade but nothing about my vinyl set up makes me want to upgrade.

[mjennings909]

I really appreciate everyone's input, obviously I want to make the right decision. Does anybody have a dealer they recommend, I live in Raleigh NC, is Needle Doctor reputable?

[JohnMichael]

I really appreciate everyone's input, obviously I want to make the right decision. Does anybody have a dealer they recommend, I live in Raleigh NC, is Needle Doctor reputable?

I have had great service at Needle Doctor and Music Direct. Most of my system is from Music Direct. Several cartridges, tweaks and cables from Needle Doctor.

[frenchmon]

I really appreciate everyone's input, obviously I want to make the right decision. Does anybody have a dealer they recommend, I live in Raleigh NC, is Needle Doctor reputable?

Have you been to Audio Advice down on Glenwood Ave? I use to go there all the time and check out the gear.

[mjennings909]

Yes, that is who is going to let me take a Clearaudio Concept table home to play it on my system as wells as a Sutherland Insight phono pre

[mjennings909]

I listened to the Music Hall 9.1 today it was hooked up to a PS Audio preamp and a PS Audio Amp, the table had a Grado Cart, cant remember the model but it was in the $600 range. The speakers were Electrostatic I cant remember the brand NOT Martin Logans. I listened to my LP's and they sounded good but I am comparing to my table so not a good reference point, but it sounded ok, it didn't blow me away, I didn't know if it was the table or the speakers but the sound was warm and sounded vinyl and I kept turning the volume up and it responded nicely and you knew you were listening to vinyl because you still could hear some noise from the LP but not much, the lows were good but the highs and vocals did not jump out, it wasn't very detail as I was expecting, again I don't have that much experience with the Electrostatics. Tomorrow will be very interesting listening to the Concept on my system with the Insight pre. Stay tune for round 2, I did like the Hall 9.1 very smooth and quiet, had a thick heavy duty platter.

[Mr Peabody]

Typically electrostats are very detailed but don't give you a physical sensation like a dynamic speaker would. I think the overly warm sound was probably the Grado cart. Keep us posted.

[mjennings909]

Ok, first impression after listening to a variety of LP's is that the first thing that jumped out was the incredible imaging and detail, I heard sounds that I hadn't noticed like in Pink Floyd's Shine on you crazy diamonds I heard a stream of bells in the beginning of the guitar piece. I am blown away it doesn't sound like this was my stereo, that I am listening to something else, I cant believe what is coming out of my speakers. The detail and the overall sound is incredible, its even keeping true the heavier rock pieces. With that said now here is the problem. When I went to pick up the Concept with MC table and Insight phono pre, I knew I was getting a Sutherland Insight pre and its out of my budget but what I didn't know I was getting a set of Transparent Musiclink Phono cables to go from the pre to my NAD AV T163. This set of Transparent cables are $1400.00, way way past my budget. So my question to you guys is how much is the cables adding to my excitement of this system? I could wait for a while to save more for the Insight but trying to get these cables would be very difficult and are they worth it. I don't have another phono cables to put in to see if there is much difference. Comments are much appreciated???

[Mr Peabody]

No, you are on the right track, the Ortofon will be a better cart in my opinion. They should remove that cable, seems a bit sleezy to leave it on, I can't imagine any one paying as much for the cable as the table. If you were going to spend more money I'd suggest stretching for the Super Nova 2 but it's twice as much. I think the package you have selected makes good use of your budget.

[Mr Peabody]

Hey, I talked to a Clearaudio dealer and something isn't right, the phono cables on the Clearaudio are intregral to the arm and integrated into the anti-skating as well so it's not just something you can put an aftermarket cable on. Are there RCA outputs on the table or do they go into the arm? The guy I talked to didn't say it was impossible but even if they are aftermarket they would have to cut the stock cable and leave part of it to attach to, so either this isn't a typical Concept or some one has really jacked around with it, either way you may want to pass on that one and get one still in the box. The Concept is basically plug & play out of the box if you even wanted to find another dealer.