advertisement


£500 to upgrade.What would you do

H

hixy

pfm Member
Hello Folks my system consists of.

Exposure 6 psu/7 pre and 8 power amp.Beresford Gatorised caiman dac.Technics 1210 standard with a denon dl110 cart.A cambridge audio 640p phono stage and Dynaudio excite x16 speakers.Firstly im very happy with my cd replay so i would like to make TT sound better.Would spending the whole £500 on a phono stage be a waste of money with my present kit or would i be better spending £300 on a phono stage and £200 on a new cartridge.Any other suggestions very welcome.

cheers mick
 
I'd go for the 300/200 split you mentioned - if your cables are to your satisfaction that is?

Oh - it is well worth rewiring the technics arm (v good upgrade).
 
Hi Hixy in that case phono stage.

Try to borrow Ear 834p, Whest, Puresound, Loricraft.

THat would give you a good cross section.
 
Spend £500 on a new sheet of metal for the under/ inside of your TT. An absolute bargain, which will -of course- make it sound vastly superior. ;)

Actually seriously its obvious to me: snap up a new roksan radius/nima (see trade/ nowt to do with me) for £550. Put the dl110 on it. Sell the tecnhics tt & spend on vinyl (or a better phonostage, but tbh the 640p is perfectly ok within your system there).

hth- capt.
 
Ask 5 PFMers what to do and get 6 sets of advice...

I'd go with the split on cart and phono stage. The 110 is good but not fantastic, I should know as I own one. There's better out there. As for it being a consumable, yes it may be but it's still something that lasts 1000 hours plus so that's a few years. At 10 hours a week (that's an hour a night in the week, 2 hours each of Sat and Sun) you'll do 500 hrs a yr.

I have never heard a Rega P3 that can match the performance of an SL 1200. Oh, BTW, people report good things from getting the standard PSU out of the case and in another box. I like the 1200, for me its biggest drawback is it looks cheap alongside a hifi deck.
 
hehehe right about the 6 answers.

I have ... Nottingham Analogue Mentor with wave mechanic (£3,000?), Ear 834p (£700?), Kuzma arm (£600?).... and a moving magnet cartridge.

Cost me eighty quid to get it re-tipped.
If I'd bought an expensive MC - would have cost about £200-£300 to get it re-tipped from Esco.

I like MM's aswell - that big, earthy sound sounds great to me.


Some people put expensive cartridges on cheap decks - and for me (and my ears), that's definately arse-over-tit.
 
It's definitely excessive in most cases but there are some surprises. The best TT sound I ever heard was a Tech 1200 with an upmarket OL Rega arm and of all things a VdH Grasshopper. Yes, that's a £3300 cart on a £300 deck. It was frighteningly good, playing Muddy Waters Folk Singer the man's voice was scary. I went home to a Lingo LP12/Ittok and it was streets behind.
 
Y'know, I've been thinking about the phono stage thing. I've had a few (some quite pricey ) and on reflection I'd have a serious listen to anything below 350 or so along side the CA. It's often that nagging brand snobbery working its way into your head - many who haven't heard the CA put in the same class as budget stages such as the phonobox or Rega Ear whilst its very much better. If you believe in tweaking then the wiring upgrade to your deck's arm and a decent cable from phono stage to amp would be worth trying.
 
hixy said:
Hello Folks my system consists of.

Exposure 6 psu/7 pre and 8 power amp.Beresford Gatorised caiman dac.Technics 1210 standard with a denon dl110 cart.A cambridge audio 640p phono stage and Dynaudio excite x16 speakers.Firstly im very happy with my cd replay so i would like to make TT sound better.Would spending the whole £500 on a phono stage be a waste of money with my present kit or would i be better spending £300 on a phono stage and £200 on a new cartridge.Any other suggestions very welcome.

cheers mick
Click to expand...
Isn't the Phono stage in your pre better than the 640p? It should be unless it's broken. Phono stages in old Exposure amplifiers are superb.

I'd flog the phono stage and your cart, buy an old RB250 and Michell tecno weight, get the arm fully rewired by Johnny Origami, bolt the whole lot on the technics and blow what's left on the best MC cart I could find.
 
foxwelljsly said:
Isn't the Phono stage in your pre better than the 640p? It should be unless it's broken. Phono stages in old Exposure amplifiers are superb.

I'd flog the phono stage and your cart, buy an old RB250 and Michell tecno weight, get the arm fully rewired by Johnny Origami, bolt the whole lot on the technics and blow the rest of my cash on an Audio Technica AT 33 ANV cart.
Click to expand...

For £500? I wish you could.
 
The first thing you should do is get the transformer out of your deck. You can do that for a total cost of about ten quid.

Then blow the rest on a better arm. I wouldn't bother with a Rega as the Technics arm is about that good. Look at Jelco 750, or used SME. I use an Ekos.
 
Cheer Folks.I have a rb251? i think on my rega p2 which i was thinking about replacing the arm on the 1210.

I know how to remove the transformer and psu from the 1210 but what box do i use. I have seen some on the maplins site.Is there a link somewhere as how to do this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top