Sorry in advance for any further upset that my question may cause. Is it worth the disturbing the setup of my turntable, not to mention the outlay, even if only temporary, on the possibility that the Houdini may be a worthwhile improvement? By improvement I don't mean more 'hi fi sounding' but something nearer the original recording.
After forty years I've reached a point where my record player delivers more detail than was possible at any price not that many years ago, coupled with a level of realism and emotion in the music that I still find surprising, astonishing even, with regularity. I don't listen and think 'that's tremendous bass', rather 'I didn't know a recording almost fifty years old sounded so real', or 'how on earth did they play that!'. Over the years my turntable and arm have followed their manufacturer's ever tighter manufacturing tolerances and closer coupling from the bearing through to the stylus, and at every stage my dealer at the time has been able to demonstrate the improvements with ease before purchase. I've also passed the point many years ago where my equipment sounds better at home than in the shop (much earlier on the reverse was true). So is it possible that the turntable, arm and cartridge manufacturers have been going down the wrong route, and a lossy connection between platter and stylus is the way forward, or is it just a fudge that works best where the connection is already subject to movement or resonance? Given the astonishingly real presentation from my very highly engineered and tightly coupled setup, should I tinker with it and go the opposite way? Right now Jim Morrison's snarl "Mr Mojo Rising" between sublime guitars and keyboards on a very close to fifty year old pressing of LA Woman, would say not to take the chance. Has anyone on here actually improved on a system that was already equal or better to the best they've heard? There seem to have been few reports in the last six months up to last week, at a time when all of our dealers shops are shut and an easy mail order purchase might have been a rare opportunity to satisfy an equipment urge! Then again I'm fortunate to have been busy and might have missed lots.
I'm not saying that my turntable is the best in the world but the combination of my system in my own room surpasses theoretically better equipment in any demonstration environment I've heard. Why should I change a fundamental part of it?