Help me choose a new SACD player - Dynamic Turtle

Fair enough - maybe what I'm trying to say is that TT's are easy to get wrong.

IME the trade-off in bandwith & detail on budget TT's, compared to budget CD players (some of which are very good remember) isn't worth it.

Greg, I live in central london and only the largest hmv & virgin stores stock vinyl. Pop/Rock aside, only HMV has a jazz vinyl collection worth bothering with. Neither of them stock classical vinyl.

There are very few used vinyl dealers around (one in notting hill & one in Grenwhich, AFAIK).

This leaves you at the mercy of Vivante & Diverse, the service from both of whom I have found to be lacking. Bloody expensive too!

You can get vinyl off eBay too, but I've been burned too many times by optimistic condition descriptions

DT

PS - Don't get me wrong - the 900V isn't the second coming, but the for the money & feature count, its bloody amazing!

 

i new john well my friend and he recomended the tuning i have done. don't try and take the p--- now .the gyro is a great design with a few alterations to the set up i can be an awesome deck. as i said change them cartridges to something good.
the azumith needs fine tuning aswell.

 

you will nver get the best from your deck with any ortofon or koetsu they are cartridges for the masses a van den hul is a hand built jewel

 

there is NO surface noise at all just inky black silence, i still find it a revalation every time i play it. now you can't say that about many products

 

With due respect, I would always maintain there is more than one way to skin a cat. What you have is clearly pretty much exactly what you want, but I guarantee it wouldnt represent the perfect front-end for everyone with a passion for hi-fi.

This forum has seen many folks arrive with similar absolute statements (and of late leave too) and none have convinced me there is one true path to Hi-Fi Valhalla.

Incidentally what other kit do you use?

 

no you are right there is no perfect sound that is impossible. but if you are crazy about music and your system can bring out the emotion in the music then you have personaly cracked it.
i use a pioneer vsa-ax10i amp , pioneer dv 868avi , arcam cd92 and a set of floor standing german speakers cantons. and obviously a surround sound set up for movies

 

Sorry Rudolph, but I fail to see they point in having such an "amazing" analogue front-end, when you're feeding it into a home cinema amp (albeit a good one).

I'm shocked that after you're comments about the coldness of cd players, you pipe your gyrodec through a solid state AV amp!!

Being such a purist, I assumed you would have a balanced dual mono valve pre and 300B monoblocks!

DT

 

I have to say I generally agree.

Rudolph - for you to conclude Red Book and SACD are cold and colder based on what you hear via your amp would leave at least some margin for doubt.

Ie. - maybe it's your amp rather than the format that's to blame?

Or have you re-engineered the amp too?

 

i know where to stop boys i am not obsessed over this hifi thing you know, and i would never spend a fortune doin it, i have bigger priorities.
i like the sound from the amp i have ,i used to live next door to audio t and have listened to most things in my time and a lot of it is just hype. i have tried the minumalist route any way, the signal is the most important thing i have found. i have bought all my gear second hand and i listen to movies more than music, and the sound i have now i cannot improve upon to my ears anyway,don't dismiss the ax10i it is a great amp for what i need, my friend also has lent me some esotic gear over the years and i would not part with that kind of money for a stereo, as i said i have heard some very expensive gear and to my ears it is a waste of money, you will never get that perfect sound no matter what you spend so it is a waste of time trying to.
most of the hifi industry is hyped up to get money out of your pockets and they succeed don't they, my friends system is worth over £200,000 and it is good but not that good i'm afraid, if you get a sound that is good to you then stick with it you can rarely improve on it no matter what you spend, in fact it can be quite the opposite i have found with so called upgrading, it generally is a waste of money, my friend is an eletrical engineer and he can't believe what some of you spend on speaker cable and he is right it makes such a tiny difference.

 

all i am saying is that i have a nice cd player a nice dvd player and a nice deck and the deck sounds far far better than the other 2 and they are all using the same amp my friend, and the dvd player is connected via the i-link, and cd or sacd is TO HARD sounding ok.
i have an old planner 3 and that sounds better than the sacd or cd player so work that one out.i believe in the signal first the amp and speakers only play second fiddle to the source

 

Rudolph,
You dismiss entire formats with utter confidence based on what you hear via your solid state AV amp...

...you espouse that you have a reference TT which you find difficult to imagine how it could be improved...

...you dismiss people who accept anything but the best in their systems...

...you mention your friend who deals in high-end gear favourably in one post and dismissively in another...

To my mind you seem overly confident in your experiences and opinions. Maybe that's not your intention.

 

spend as much on the signal that is the important part you could have the best amp on the planet being fed an aldi dvd player and the sound would be aweful yes

 

Yep, that's a tried and tested route but not one to suit everyone.

Personally I find my CD and SACD reproduction is clean yes, but certainly emotional and not cold. Plus I would consider my current setup to be on the cold side.

Maybe your turnable is overly warm?

 

my friend i have been listening to music for 40 years and in that time you get an idea what is going on would you agree, how old are you? you obviously have been sucked into this thing a little to much, my friends system is awesome but at £200,000 it should be

 

pure midrange myfriend nothing more nothing less. do you have a vinyl front end?

 

But you yourself referred to getting the "system" right. I think finding a balance is more important.

Afterall - just imagine you were to judge a decent CD or SACD front end via a cold amp you might mistakenly conclude the formats are cold?

 

put it this way we had friends over for dinner saturday night and our friend was intrigued about sacd so i put one on and he did not respond, an hour later i decided to play some vinyl. he immediatley sat up and said wow, and started to tap his feet, the untrained ear is a good test my friend

 

i have borrowed a cd12 my friend

 

you are right greg a well balanced buget system will far out perform an expensive unbalanced system

 

any way no matter how good your system is in the end you will get used to it and always want more