Got me a record player!

Alternatively, I have been pointed towards the Expert Stylus Company in Surrey. They will rebuild for considerably less, and apparently the results are excellent. Any of you guys know of this?
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I know ESCo are highly regarded, although I have no experience of them. The problem is, as bottleneck said, you can never be sure the cart will sound the same as it did before the retip. Experience seems to suggest some people like the results, and others don't. But it all depends on the cart, of course. Makes it hard to recommend, just because of the uncertainty.

Now I know Henry holds the Koetsu in high regard. Would you recommend staying with it (the bass is gorgeous!) or maybe recommend an alternative at sensible money?
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I'm not very familiar with Koetsus, only heard them in unfamiliar setups. How much money is "sensible"? Auditioning carts is a pain, but one thing I know from recent experience is buying from Europe can be significantly cheaper than buying from the UK (my Ortofon Rohmann is around £1K in the UK. I got it for half that from a German dealer).

So any suggestions for a good used integrated to match the Proacs:confused:
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If you're handy with a soldering iron one of the World Audio Design kits might do the trick. Or how about the Unico (valve pre, solid state power) that everyone raves about? Haven't heard it myself but probably worth an audition. I've seen a few about ex-dem recently.

-- Ian
 
hmmm

how about a pair of Audion Silver nights?

you can get these 300b monoblocks for £800-£1300 depending where you get them. About 25w p/ch if I remember correctly. Badchamp has some.

Bonus is, they have volume controls on them so you can stuff your phono stage straight in.

Is that too much ££?
How much were you planning to spend?

Failing that, a second hand WAD kit would be my reccomendation for tighter budgets (sub £500).

Personally Id take the risk and get the Koetsu sorted... but thats a personal call..

options options!



Chris
 
Merlin I suggest you take a serious look at DV cartridges.

They are excellent. You could flog your knackered one and for 100 quid more get an xx-2

The whole range of MC carts is very good IMO and should be worthy of consideration.

Please don't ditch the deck on one single hic-up, its hardly a fair run.
 
Originally posted by lowrider
Merlin,

Now I am sure, you dont like music, just hifi... :newbie:
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:D

Antonio,

Just for the record, I probably listen to music from various sources ( car radio, car CD, CD, DVD and now vinyl) for about 50 hours a week. Regardless of the source, I get great pleasure from good music. I also like to explore various avenues for increasing the pleasure of listening to my favourites. That's what the HIFI hobby is all about, pretty sad if you just do it to impress your mates;)

Besides which, what would you know my friend, what with your preoccupation with all things AV:p

Thanks for all the tips guys (excuse the pun). Robbo, I will take you up on that offer to listen to the amp, thanks for that.

Ian and Chris, I'm really trying to keep the costs right down:( but the Koetsu is seemingly behaving itself now:confused: Do these things run in after setup or something:confused: It's still down on one channel, but that's nothing a balance control doesn't sort out. I have heard many Koetsus at shops over the past 20 years, and must admit, I love the qualities. The bass is phenomenal, the midrange just lives and breathes. Yes it's a bit soft and rolled off in the treble but I think that's half the appeal. It was interesting when the Absolute Sounds guy came round to set it up. He was playing with the loading to get the sound that they prefer. Well to me it was wrong. It was as if he was trying to make the TT sound like a good CD player, whereas I want it to sound like the TT's I remember from years ago.

That is one of my fears about switching to the likes of Dynavector, Ortofon or VDH as you guys have suggested. From what I have read, they sound very different to the Koetsu's presentation. And of course it's impossible to dem them first. Thanks WM for the mention of the Red, sadly I suspect it would be out of my price bracket:( It's also a risk getting a retip. If anyone fancies a trip over to Bucks to inspect the stylus in return for generous beverage allowance, I would really appreciate someone telling me whether the Onyx has a little life left or whether I need to act now. Funnily enough, the surface noise was a lot less intrusive tonight, plus end of side distortion is less noticeable. I do find myself wondering if it had been used poorly setup recently, and needed a little time to settle following it's realignment yesterday.

Cheers for the support guys, now tomorrow I'm going record shopping:D Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, Bobby Womack, Led Zep..........
 
Keep us posted as to whether it carries on behaving itself. If a channel is down and you're convinced it's been properly set up it still sounds to me like a cart problem, but you never know.

I think ESCo will examine and report on the state of a cart for not much money, so that might be worth doing for peace of mind.

In a day or two make a few fractional VTA adjustments (easy on an SME) if you still have a problem, see if that helps. Even tiny adjustments can make a surprising difference.

-- Ian
 
Hiya merlin

Most likely culprit if theres a fault is the diamond.

You just need a man with a microscope my friend... I dont know any though!

Im sure as Ian says it would cost very very little to get it looked at under a microscope by a specialist.... like £20?

NB
Alison Krauss and Union Station ''New Favorite'' on 200g from Diverse Vinyl is a MUST BUY !... I play it almost every day..

Cheers
Chris

NNB Tone - if you're reading this I bought Rainbow 'Rising' on your reccomendation yesterday. :)
 
Originally posted by merlin
:D


It's still down on one channel, but that's nothing a balance control doesn't sort out.
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This could be a problem with the setup of the cartridge, in terms of its alignment in the groove, it could be the record is damaged by using a defective needle previously, or it could be that the needle is damaged/cantilever bent.

Those are my most likely explanations anyway.

Cheers
Chris
 
Originally posted by bottleneck

NNB Tone - if you're reading this I bought Rainbow 'Rising' on your reccomendation yesterday. :)
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Chris, you are gowing to laugh now, I have it on Vinyl :eek: I bought in Paris on a school Trip in 1980, never played it :)
Tracks 1/4/5 are cracking. Tone

Merlin the 'Red' cart, is up for around £1200 mate, mint too.
 
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Now you guys are really going to laugh;)

I am currently listening to a valve powered vinyl system:D :D

Not bad either, if anyone fancies a bloody good amp for a couple of grand (near half price), this Audio Research CA50 integrated is going and it's not been used before:) Smoothy, nicey, plinky:D But does surprising things for such a small integrated;)

NB. It's the model used by Proac to dem their Response 1SC Robbo;) :D :D And it's got a sub output and remote control. get the money out Neil!
 
Ah, a topic of great interest. :D


Hey Merlin,

Congratulations on your new purchase. Compared to some of the others on this thread, I am relatively new to the TT game but have learned a lot in a very short space of time. I am also familiar with the Orbe/SME V set-up as a couple of friends own such a combo. Firstly your new TT set-up including the cartridge is much better than mine which is the Gyro SE TT > Incognito RB300 tonearm (to be upgraded to an SME IV tonearm - second-hand of course :D) > Grado Reference Signature/Sonata cartridge into Graham Slee Era Gold V phono stage. In my set-up and from my listening position, I hear no surface noise but in order to hear it, I have to put an ear up against the speakers. Now, I suspect that you don't listen to your TT with your ears that close to the speakers, so surface noise should not be an issue unless you have a set-up related problem or the cartridge has past it's sell-by date.

In terms of the colouration you mentioned, yes, there can be some colouration in the Orbe and Gyro SE's mid-bass output which some owners have come to accept as part of the decks' characteristics. However, this should not be so and I'm sure that colouration was not in John Michell's design brief for these decks. As your deck has just been professionally set-up, you should give the springs some time to settle. After, they have settled, the mid-bass colouration would still be there but to a much lesser extent. This is due to the fact that the black armboard spacers from Michell are not very effective in preventing tonearm resonances affecting the chassis especially when big arms such as the SME IV & V are used. Some Gyro SE/Orbe + SME IV/V owners just accept it as part of the combo's nature but if you upgrade the spacers with something like the Pederson armboard upgrade kit, what you are left with is zero colouration and much better sonics such as, clearer and life-like details together with much tighter, more precise but extended bass and greater musicality. This armboard upgrade kit has become a standard accessory for both Gyro SE and Orbe owners in this part of the world. It would be great if Michell adopted this kit as their standard armboard spacers given it's effectiveness and IMNSHO, some of the criticisms that have been levelled on these decks by some first-time auditioners would be retracted if they heard the decks with the Pederson spacers instead. See more details here: http://pedersensgyro.hjem.wanadoo.dk/armboard_english.htm Notice how the Pederson version completely isolates the whole perimeter of the armboard section from the chassis. It works dude and even Gyro SE & Orbe owners using Rega tonearms would gain benefits from such an upgrade and I should know. :D

Btw, I agree with Bottleneck's recommendation of the Alison Krauss "New Favourite" LP. Also check-out the follow-up "Forget About It". Both were recorded from DSD masters and sound superb - well to my ears anyway. There's nothing like a bit of blue-grass country music to get those hips swaying :D and on that note ............................




Enjoy the music,

Lawrie :D
 
Well, you said your system sounds perfect, and now you starting all over again, you know when you listen to equipment you just dont hear music, period... :rolleyes:

In my book it means you prefer fiddling with hifi than listening to music... :p

Nothing wrong with that though... :JPS:

Also, do you close your eyes when, if, you go to live performances, so what is wrong with AV... :confused:
 
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Not bad either, if anyone fancies a bloody good amp for a couple of grand (near half price), this Audio Research CA50 integrated is going and it's not been used before Smoothy, nicey, plinky But does surprising things for such a small integrated
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Ahh but does it do groove? If not then its a non starter:)

Robbo
 
Originally posted by lowrider
Well, you said your system sounds perfect, and now you starting all over again, you know when you listen to equipment you just dont hear music, period... :rolleyes:

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Well Antonio, the TacT system does perfectly reproduce whatever is on the digital media being inputted to it IMO, and is vastly superior in most areas to ANY digital system I have heard;) As for your comment about not hearing music, I listen for the music, through whatever I am using at the time. The kit itself lives or dies by how much it gets out of the way of the music.

And you are a fine one to talk my Portuguese friend:D I've lost count of the component swaps you have had over the past year or so (various Tag upgrades, new Bryston, Proac CC2, Krell Showboat, new mains cables, new interconnects.........;) )

In my book it means you prefer fiddling with hifi than listening to music...
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Stone throwing and glasshouses come to mind:D

Also, do you close your eyes when, if, you go to live performances, so what is wrong with AV...
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Actually yes I do but that's besides the point! Now theoretically nothing's wrong with AV , but "been there - done that". Don't forget, we first spoke when I was into AV, at the time owning Meridian, Theta, Martin Logan, Rel et al.

My experience tells me that there is not an AV product out there that is not a compromise when it comes to music reproduction. Now everything is a compromise of some sort, the valve amp that is playing at the moment represents a different set of compromises to what I am used to (ie it preserves the analogue chain at the expense of power and detail retrieval). It's just that even the Theta Casablanca, which is IMHO the finest processor on the market for music replay, is a compromise compared with a good two channel preamp. A dedicated two channel rig will give most of us more pleasure, although you are obviously happy with the level that you are at.

The reason for the TT purchase was to try to understand what the otherside are harping on about. You have to live with products to truly understand the strengths and weaknesses. Getting a demo is no way to form a definitve judgement. I like this setup (Orbe/SME V/Koetsu/Audio Research/Merlin VSM. It's enjoyable and possesses many qualities you cannot get with SS or digital rigs. It also makes a lot of compromises! It is more a question of which qualities rock your boat than one being more valid than the other.

I took the plunge because I reckon if I decide to stick to digital, I can split this rig up and more than get my money back. I never buy new kit these days (remember the Krell thread), it's just too damned expensive.
 

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