Hello, again. Ramble..

[WineOfTheVeins]

Good day everyone! Long time no talk, been super busy for a few months traveling for work and what not. I also moved, and have my own dedicated listening room now, super excited! I am in the midst of installing my home-made acoustic panels in there and making the best possible experience. My father in law came over to listen to some tunes, he really likes my setup! High compliment coming from a guy with an even higher end system than me. I toed in my speakers slightly, and have a perfect equilateral triangle for the best 3d sound. I used my Anthem ARC2 room correction software to calibrate to my new room, and boy does she sound amazing!

I was looking at it all the other day though, "What is the weakest link here?" Well, not the amp, not the speakers, hmm, must be the cables. I did my homework on cables, looked at the cheap and the pricey. Even went into a high end audio store where he tried to sell me $4k-$14k cables. You can't preach to an electrician about hocus pocus magic inside these Audioquest cables. He did however offer to loan me some high end cables for the weekend. That way, I can do a side by side comparison, and if anything, I should notice a difference since my system is very high fidelity, AND I am going from using 12/2 SOOW electrical cabl for speaker wire, and a $10 26 gauge cheapo interconnect. I will post my results whether going from 0-60 with cables makes any difference at all.

I am thinking I will order from Blue Jeans Cable. I like that Canare 4S11 cable for many reasons, and it gets good reviews; along with one of their digital coaxial cables, good shielding and 18 gauge conductor vs 26. I can justify $150 on some cables, I feel like a high end system deserves something better than barbed wire, but I think the bell curve tops off at the monoprice, BJC cables, everything past that seems snake-oily.

I did just get a nice 4 tier audio rack, I will post pictures this weekend. The top shelf is dedicated for a turntable, which I do not have yet. Do you guys have any recommendations for a good turn table?

Thanks for hearing my rambling, I'm happy to be back!

 

[tmurnin]

What is your budget for a turntable? Lots of very good options out there, but also think there is a rapidly declining return curve as you spend more and more money unless you are shooting for a particular aesthetic.

 

[WineOfTheVeins]

I don't think I'd want to spend more than a couple grand. I already have a good CD collection, and while I find the sound of records appealing, there are still a lot of pro's for CDs.

 

[slipperybidness]

I don't think I'd want to spend more than a couple grand. I already have a good CD collection, and while I find the sound of records appealing, there are still a lot of pro's for CDs.

https://uturnaudio.com/collections/all

 

[WineOfTheVeins]

https://uturnaudio.com/collections/all

Interesting, never heard of these guys. Since my preamp can handle moving magnet & moving coil, which one is better? Sorry, kind of a newbie to the turn-table world. My father in law has a really high end one, $10k+, belt driven like these, heavy platter etc.

 

[slipperybidness]

Interesting, never heard of these guys. Since my preamp can handle moving magnet & moving coil, which one is better? Sorry, kind of a newbie to the turn-table world. My father in law has a really high end one, $10k+, belt driven like these, heavy platter etc.

I have not heard the U-Turns, but several members here own them and they all seem to get praise from owners and reviewers.

I ended up going with the (similar) Pro-Ject Debut Carbon as seen in my avatar pic, for a couple of reasons. In retrospect, if I had it to do again, I would give the U-Turn a shot. Both of these are belt drive.

I also own a Technics SL-1210, an EXCELLENT TT, but much pricier, and it is Direct Drive.

Belt Drive vs. Direct Drive, there are advantages/disadvantages to each design, and no shortage of people that will claim either is the best.

IMO, if you are just getting into vinyl, don't spend a whole lot on a TT. That really only makes sense to spend big $ on a TT if you already have an existing vinyl collection.

Vinyl is more work, and you have to get up to flip the record. I got into vinyl around the late 1990s when used records were dirt cheap due to CDs.

 

[rojo]

I used my Anthem ARC2 room correction software to calibrate to my new room, and boy does she sound amazing!

Just curious, but if the sound is already amazing, then what improvement do you hope to achieve by upgrading the cables or anything else? Have you considered adding a subwoofer or two?

 

[WineOfTheVeins]

Just curious, but if the sound is already amazing, then what improvement do you hope to achieve by upgrading the cables or anything else? Have you considered adding a subwoofer or two?

The way I see it, is it can't hurt to get some monoprice or BJC cables, they're inexpensive and well made. And my cables were kind of in-situ. Cab tire (soow) cable isn't exactly ideal, and I think the dental floss coax cable might be a weak point. I'm not going to go all out on cables, but given a high end system, why not have them right?

I do not want a sub tbh. I want this to be a true 2 channel setup, and there is plenty of bass for what I like. I think it will take away from the music by having a sub that may drown out what I was meant to hear. I do not want overproduced bass. I keep my 12" Polk on my 5.1 setup as it is beneficial for movies and games.

Curious; I looked into the U-Turn tables, they look great and have wonderful reviews. How do they compare to the Pro-Ject Carbon? I like that it has the Carbon tonearm and the Red cartridge which I was going to pick anyway. Since I live in Canada, there's an additional $55USD for shipping/import duty fees that kind of turned me off of the U-Turn. Total was about $580 CDN for the custom Orbit, for $599 shipped I can get the Carbon. Thoughts?

 

[tmurnin]

Agree - if you're just starting out in vinyl, I'd go for something from Pro-Ject or Music Hall, or even one of the used Technics ones out there, all of which can be found for under $1k if you are patient and scout around. From there, I'd upgrade the cartridge before I'd upgrade the TT itself, but I wouldn't even do that until I was sure I wasn't happy with the sound.

BJC cables are solid. Well-made, well priced.

 

[killdozzer]

I do not want a sub tbh. I want this to be a true 2 channel setup, and there is plenty of bass for what I like. I think it will take away from the music by having a sub that may drown out what I was meant to hear. I do not want overproduced bass. I keep my 12" Polk on my 5.1 setup as it is beneficial for movies and games.

First off, no intent on changing your mind. It is good when someone knows exactly what he wants. Having said that, what you named for reasons why you’re not interested in a sub woofer is not really what is expected from a sub woofer. More precisely, you might expect that from a poorly set up SW or from a poorly produced material.

SW will reproduce sounds that are a genuine part of your music, but you usually miss out on them with plain woofers unless they are big and extend very deep. Not take away from the music, but reveal what was always there. (Perhaps I'm just sold on the idea)

Even then, even if you have big woofers that go deep, reproduction of the deepest frequencies often demands a different placement of the speakers than the placement of L/R, and this is something that SW allows you to achieve.

 

[lovinthehd]

Nor will the sub drown everything out unless you set it up that way.

 

[WineOfTheVeins]

First off, no intent on changing your mind. It is good when someone knows exactly what he wants. Having said that, what you named for reasons why you’re not interested in a sub woofer is not really what is expected from a sub woofer. More precisely, you might expect that from a poorly set up SW or from a poorly produced material.

SW will reproduce sounds that are a genuine part of your music, but you usually miss out on them with plain woofers unless they are big and extend very deep. Not take away from the music, but reveal what was always there. (Perhaps I'm just sold on the idea)

Even then, even if you have big woofers that go deep, reproduction of the deepest frequencies often demands a different placement of the speakers than the placement of L/R, and this is something that SW allows you to achieve.

Fair enough. Thanks for your opinion. All the 2 channel high-end setups I've thoroughly enjoyed haven't had subwoofers. I honestly don't think I'll ever have one on this setup.

Maybe drown out wasn't the best term, but amplifying the lows past what the Focals already provide seems unnecessary.

 

[killdozzer]

Fair enough. Thanks for your opinion. All the 2 channel high-end setups I've thoroughly enjoyed haven't had subwoofers. I honestly don't think I'll ever have one on this setup.

Maybe drown out wasn't the best term, but amplifying the lows past what the Focals already provide seems unnecessary.

Should have added earlier; seeing the type of the speaker you're about to/did get, I may have overstated the importance of a sub. With enough power, these shouldn't leave you wanting. Placement will be a "pro" on the SW side, other than that, you should be fine.

 

[WineOfTheVeins]

Should have added earlier; seeing the type of the speaker you're about to/did get, I may have overstated the importance of a sub. With enough power, these shouldn't leave you wanting. Placement will be a "pro" on the SW side, other than that, you should be fine.

Agreed. 3 x 7" drivers for lows, inside a hand-made well engineered cabinet, being fed by an Anthem that can easily feed (conservative specs of 200w continuous into 8ohms, 400w into 4, and 550w into 2) I am more than satisfied. I have cranked the volume on time to time to see what she can do, even at -6dB (loudest I want to go without wanting to blow my eardrums) it runs cool and has no distortion or problems. Had I went with the 1028's or something different, I'd have more of an inclination to add a sub.