Best TT under 20k ?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by C220MC275

Very interesting story Bill.
Thank you !

Along these lines, and 5 years after Bill's story of when he met Ivor, I did something of a similar experiment with another, now famous TT.

A buddy of mine had a Kenwood Direct Drive TT, the one with the synthetic marble base (was it the KD500?) along with an Infinity Black Widow carbon fibre arm; reputed by all the American mags to be the hot-sh*t and SOTA at the time.

Anyway, I brought my newly acquired TT over for an evening's shoot-out that no one had ever heard of in the U.S. before: a Rega Planar 3 with an SME III arm. This was before Rega was known in the U.S. or even manufacturing arms...so at the time it was either an SME or the Grace 707 that most folks were using. We both using the same cartridge: a Sonus Gold modified by Frank Van Alstine.

Long story short: The Rega blew the Kenwood/Infinity into the frickin' weeds. My friend couldn't believe it; the Rega was markedly superior on every record we played.

The very next week my friend went out and bought a new TT...a Linn-Sondek LP12.

He still owns that Linn to this day.

Speaking of which, here is that Rega:



And, I still own the Rega to this day!

On a fun note, when is the last time you saw an SME V on a Rega Planar 3?



I put the V on the Rega just for sh*ts and giggles while awaiting for the Michell Gyro to arrive. The black arm looks good on a black Rega!

[Jerome W]

Wow,
Very nice Stephen !
First time I see an SME V on a P3 ! Quite an upgrade : 10 x the price of the TT ! and not to mention the cart...

[Puma Cat]

Yes, Jérôme, it was fun, but a temporary setup. Right now, a friend is borrowing my Rega, which has my Soundsmith-retipped Grace F9E Ruby cartridge on it.

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Yes, Jérôme, it was fun, but a temporary setup. Right now, a friend is borrowing my Rega, which has my Soundsmith-retipped Grace F9E Ruby cartridge on it.

Your friend is lucky !

[1KW]

I am enjoying the turntable most of you steered me towards on the 5 k turntable thread. I ended up picking up a new pre amp, putting in Gold Lion tubes then came the Gyro SE/ SME 309 with Shelter 501 which sounds as good or better than my MCD500. It took some break in time as you all said it would but now when I put on a new or even a clean old LP it has a real WOW factor. I have heard some expensive tables such as the SME 20 turntable with a SMEV tonearm and it is wonderful table . If you don't want to spend over 10 k or 20 k on a new table you can get the same performance with a pre owned table . Then again Serge sold his SME 20 /SME V combo and is using my old Technics SL1200 I am very very happy with my 5 k table but there a few other tables such as avid hifi ltd :: reference I would not mind owning just on looks alone

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by 1KW

I am enjoying the turntable most of you steered me towards on the 5 k turntable thread. I ended up picking up a new pre amp, putting in Gold Lion tubes then came the Gyro SE/ SME 309 with Shelter 501 which sounds as good or better than my MCD500. It took some break in time as you all said it would but now when I put on a new or even a clean old LP it has a real WOW factor. I have heard some expensive tables such as the SME 20 turntable with a SMEV tonearm and it is wonderful table . If you don't want to spend over 10 k or 20 k on a new table you can get the same performance with a pre owned table . Then again Serge sold his SME 20 /SME V combo and is using my old Technics SL1200 I am very very happy with my 5 k table but there a few other tables such as avid hifi ltd :: reference I would not mind owning just on looks alone

Hi David,

I'm glad to know that you enjoy so much your GYRODEC SE : that is a great table !

[MC352]

Originally Posted by jprice

I really can't believe that we are discussing turntables that cost Twenty Thousand Dollars like they are no big deal - My gosh, I remember when I bought my first turntable - a Garrard type A for $125.00 and a Shure cartridge for $17.00 and, golly was I proud.

I just shopped for a week to buy a new Honda for my daughter and it cost less than $20,000. Heck I bought my first house for under $20,000 and it probably had a twenty year mortgage.

I think I worked the first four years out of college for about $20,000 - total for all four years!

And here we are - talking about $20,000 turntables and that is probably without a decent cartridge - which may be another $5,000 or so.

Am I the only one here that thinks that $20,000 is a hell of a lot of money?

No your not the only one.
+1

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Along these lines, and 5 years after Bill's story of when he met Ivor, I did something of a similar experiment with another, now famous TT.

A buddy of mine had a Kenwood Direct Drive TT, the one with the synthetic marble base (was it the KD500?) along with an Infinity Black Widow carbon fibre arm; reputed by all the American mags to be the hot-sh*t and SOTA at the time.

Anyway, I brought my newly acquired TT over for an evening's shoot-out that no one had ever heard of in the U.S. before: a Rega Planar 3 with an SME III arm. This was before Rega was known in the U.S. or even manufacturing arms...so at the time it was either an SME or the Grace 707 that most folks were using. We both using the same cartridge: a Sonus Gold modified by Frank Van Alstine.

Long story short: The Rega blew the Kenwood/Infinity into the frickin' weeds. My friend couldn't believe it; the Rega was markedly superior on every record we played.

The very next week my friend went out and bought a new TT...a Linn-Sondek LP12.

He still owns that Linn to this day.

Speaking of which, here is that Rega:





And, I still own the Rega to this day!

On a fun note, when is the last time you saw an SME V on a Rega Planar 3?



I put the V on the Rega just for sh*ts and giggles while awaiting for the Michell Gyro to arrive. The black arm looks good on a black Rega!

Great story. Rega humbled many a table back then. In my early days at Sound Components (1978 on), we certainly had the KD500, but the table we sold in huge quantities was the Rega. At the time, it came fitted with a Lustre tonearm. Trying to remember, I think the Rega 2 was $298 with arm and the 3 was $398. We bought them without arm about 3/1 and sold them with Grace 707MkIIs primarily. We were always on the lookout for a better version of an aftermarket arm lift so we could sell the table to a wider audience.

I remember well the in store shootouts with the KD500/BlackWidow/Sonus Blue combos. Avid magazine readers insisted that if we would just change the mat, the Kenwood would win. Of course it didn't and many could not accept the results, "But XYZ said.." Was interesting to see how little people were willing to question the magazines, even then. Pretty humorous thinking back on it now.

[Rafale]

Jérôme
browse the Sonus Faber official website ie the Value fold
and see the turntable... Just kidding
see you later
all the best

[Rafale]

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