Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

Joe Mac said:
If you fancy doing something fun and altogether different you could try tubes.

I know you have had good deals from TMR and maybe something like this could fit your bill?

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PrimaLuna Prologue Premium Stereo Tube Integrated Amplifier; MM Phono

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This and maybe 6 KT88 (4 for amp and 2 spare) would come in just over budget and 40W per channel tube should be enough for your speakers.
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Not sure I'm ready to go down that path yet
 
ZiggsMBK said:
Glad you're enjoying the Prime Scout and other recent additions! As for amps, perhaps give something from Atoll Electronique a look. I recently heard their IN80 while auditioning my Fidelio (speakers), and it showed up my Moon 240i. Both were smooth and detailed, but the Atoll had noticeably more body and presence by comparison. I was impressed.

The IN100 Signature is probably where you'd want to look at a $2k budget, though I can't seem to find exact US prices.. It has home theatre bypass and a dual mono design, as well as 140 watts into 4 ohms and reputedly iron-fisted bass control, which might benefit those Luminas.
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Oooh, i like this one! Only hesitation I'm having, (well, 2 hesitations) is a review that said it wasn't great for headphone listening, which i do a fair bit of, and that Kinki Ex M1+ I mentioned above is just so sexy. Hmm
 
SMeekWoodworks said:
There is a Kinki on Reverb right now for $2500. I'm so intrigued. It's gorgeous. Would love to hear more why it's your pick
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If you don’t need a pre out for a sub or home theater bypass, then you could go for a regular Kinki EX-M1 i believe and save some money.

Edit: i see @Joe Mac laughing so assume that HT is needed…

Kinki also had open box deals a little while ago. Not sure if they still have them in stock. $2500 for the M1+ is probably a good deal with the op amps
 
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SMeekWoodworks said:
There is a Kinki on Reverb right now for $2500. I'm so intrigued. It's gorgeous. Would love to hear more why it's your pick
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It’s easily the most robust build at their price point. It’s simple to use, in my opinion it puts the money in all the right places, and it can pretty easily power virtually anything you throw at it.

I wish they were easier to demo, but at $2500 also fairly safe that you could turn it around with little to no loss.
 
MikeH said:
If you don’t need a pre out for a sub or home theater bypass, then you could go for a regular Kinki EX-M1 i believe and save some money.

Edit: i see @Joe Mac laughing so assume that HT is needed…

Kinki also had open box deals a little while ago. Not sure if they still have them in stock. $2500 for the M1+ is probably a good deal with the op amps
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Haha! Yeah the original post looking for amp recommendations asked for a HT bypass lol.
 
SMeekWoodworks said:
There is a Kinki on Reverb right now for $2500. I'm so intrigued. It's gorgeous. Would love to hear more why it's your pick
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I picked up my Kinki used a couple of years ago. There were some positive YT reviews and I had an upgrade itch. Prior to the Kinki I had a Yamaha as301 and a Cambridge Audio CXA81. Both of these are very good, but the Kinki is a noticeable upgrade.

The deal on the Kinki was good and I was drinking bourbon so I bought it.

Anyway, the Kinki is powerful and smooth. It has great soundstage and detail, but is not etched. There is treble energy, but no sibilance. The bass with my speakers is tight and controlled.

I never tire of listening to the Kinki amp. I have some other amps in my collection that i rotate through every couple of months. They all sound great, but when I cycle back through to the Kinki I question the need for my other setups. If I could only have 1 amp at this point it would be the Kinki.

One last thing about the Kinki that intrigued me is the ability to roll op amps. I have yet to do this, but I have recently acquired some op amps for my DAC (Geshelli J2S) and am going to try out adding them to my Kinki to see how they sound. The op amps raised the sound quality of my DAC noticeably.
 
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Hello all -

Quick question to finalize some thoughts on a new turntable. Haven't had one for years, and am trying to finalize my final list on a few options. Still fairly new in catching up on new offerings and lingo, so please bear with my ignorance.

Curious if anyone who owns any of these can give me feedback on quality of build, upgradability, ease of setting it up, and overall satisfaction with the model and brand. I will be playing this out of a McIntosh C55 Preamp.

Our favorite music genres are rock, EDM/IDM/EM, pop, trip-hop and lounge, metal, thrash, alternative, and some World bands like Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard, so I would obviously love to pare it up with a cartridge that does a good job with all of those options.

1 - Technics SL1200 - GR2 - Like the reputation of the company (parents owned one) and the look. I like the speed support for all 3 options and direct drive specs. Pricey, but can swing it if I have to.

2 - DUAL CS-618Q - The old tables seem to have a good reputation, but not sure about these new ones? Like the Technics, I like the direct drive mechanics and the support for all 3 speeds. The general look of the table is really cool too, just not sure about quality at this point of the build?

3 - Rega Planar 6 - Love the look of the table, but is the only belt-driven table I am seriously thinking about based purely on reviews of the sound and quality of their products in general.

4 - DUAL SC-529 - Fully automatic table and kind of last on my list. I love the idea of a fully automatic table, and this has some great ideas like the "Repeat" option and the IOS app support for remote playing. Again, not sure about DUAL quality these days?

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
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Perrin2025 said:
Hello all -

Quick question to finalize some thoughts on a new turntable. Haven't had one for years, and am trying to finalize my final list on a few options. Still fairly new in catching up on new offerings and lingo, so please bear with my ignorance.

Curious if anyone who owns any of these can give me feedback on quality of build, upgradability, ease of setting it up, and overall satisfaction with the model and brand. I will be playing this out of a McIntosh C55 Preamp.

1 - Technics SL1200 - GR2 - Like the reputation of the company (parents owned one) and the look. I like the speed support for all 3 options and direct drive specs. Pricey, but can swing it if I have to. The magnesium tonearm seems to be a plus for a lot of people in playback quality, and it seems to be very upgradeable over time if I want.

2 - DUAL CS-618Q - The old tables seem to have a good reputation, but not sure about these new ones? Like the Technics, I like the direct drive mechanics and the support for all 3 speeds. The general look of the table is really cool too, just not sure about quality at this point of the build?

3 - Rega Planar 6 - Love the look of the table, but is the only belt-driven table I am seriously thinking about based purely on reviews of the sound and quality of their products in general.

4 - DUAL SC-529 - Fully automatic table and kind of last on my list. I love the idea of a fully automatic table, and this has some great ideas like the "Repeat" option and the IOS app support for remote playing. Again, not sure about DUAL quality these days?

Thanks in advance for any help.
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I don’t have any of these, but a number of people here have the Technics SL-1200GR and love it. The GR2 is even better but does not have the magnesium tonearm. That’s reserved for the G.

I’ve heard less about the other models on N&G, but I’d recommend the GR2 over the Planar 6 because of the removal headshell and the adjustable VTA.
 
Perrin2025 said:
Hello all -

Quick question to finalize some thoughts on a new turntable. Haven't had one for years, and am trying to finalize my final list on a few options. Still fairly new in catching up on new offerings and lingo, so please bear with my ignorance.

Curious if anyone who owns any of these can give me feedback on quality of build, upgradability, ease of setting it up, and overall satisfaction with the model and brand. I will be playing this out of a McIntosh C55 Preamp.

1 - Technics SL1200 - GR2 - Like the reputation of the company (parents owned one) and the look. I like the speed support for all 3 options and direct drive specs. Pricey, but can swing it if I have to. The magnesium tonearm seems to be a plus for a lot of people in playback quality, and it seems to be very upgradeable over time if I want.

2 - DUAL CS-618Q - The old tables seem to have a good reputation, but not sure about these new ones? Like the Technics, I like the direct drive mechanics and the support for all 3 speeds. The general look of the table is really cool too, just not sure about quality at this point of the build?

3 - Rega Planar 6 - Love the look of the table, but is the only belt-driven table I am seriously thinking about based purely on reviews of the sound and quality of their products in general.

4 - DUAL SC-529 - Fully automatic table and kind of last on my list. I love the idea of a fully automatic table, and this has some great ideas like the "Repeat" option and the IOS app support for remote playing. Again, not sure about DUAL quality these days?

Thanks in advance for any help.
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I didn't realize the GR2 had a Mg tonearm. It's the best bang for the buck with easy cart swapping flexibility.
The Rega would be a close 2nd with belt drive and a little more cumbersome setup.
Depends on what sound you like, which is hard to recommend to anyone.
 
Angsty said:
I don’t have any of these, but a number of people here have the Technics SL-1200GR and love it. The GR2 is even better but does not have the magnesium tonearm. That’s reserved for the G.

I’ve heard less about the other models on N&G, but I’d recommend the GR2 over the Planar 6 because of the removal headshell and the adjustable VTA.
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Hi - thanks for the feedback. You're right! I must have gotten that mixed up when I was looking at other Technics tables. I will update my original post and remove that aspect of the table.

It seems they're highly rated by people, and it's about the top of the price range for what I want to spend as we go down this path for the first time in decades. Got rid of everything decades ago, but feeling an urge to get back to a more tactile and local solution for music again.

Thanks again.
 
Jbraswell said:
I didn't realize the GR2 had a Mg tonearm. It's the best bang for the buck with easy cart swapping flexibility.
The Rega would be a close 2nd with belt drive and a little more cumbersome setup.
Depends on what sound you like, which is hard to recommend to anyone.
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It doesn't. I got mixed up with another table, so I need to update that. My bad,

When you say easy cart swapping what do you mean? I know the head shell twists off which looks like it makes swapping out new cartridges pretty easy, as long as they come mounted to a new head shell? Still learning here, so please bear with me.

Yeah, I agree on listening to them. Hard here as no one really carries turntables, and those who do don't carry many and aren't really interested in setting them up for a listen. I am leaving for a trip soon and might setup some listening sessions at local hifi shops where I am going.
 
Yeah you acquire some various headshells and carts based on pairing the specs. Most are purchased individually.
Once those are mounted/setup correctly, you just swap the headshell out based on your cart preference for the day.
I do it all the time and it takes about 2 mins to rebalance the tonearm plus anti skate for each change.

I don't micro adjust VTA all the time like I could but I keep an eyeball on it for the most part.

If this all sounds confusing, don't stress. It comes with time and some tinkering where it becomes second nature.

A removable headshell is much more convenient to mount a cart due to easiness of having the little booger detached in your hands versus trying to do this while mounted on the fixed tonearm. I am sure you can get pretty good at it with practice also. None of this is too difficult for anyone wanting to learn it.
 
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Jbraswell said:
Yeah you acquire some various headshells and carts based on pairing the specs. Most are purchased individually.
Once those are mounted/setup correctly, you just swap the headshell out based on your cart preference for the day.
I do it all the time and it takes about 2 mins to rebalance the tonearm plus anti skate for each change.

I don't micro adjust VTA all the time like I could but I keep an eyeball on it for the most part.

If this all sounds confusing, don't stress. It comes with time and some tinkering where it becomes second nature.

A removable headshell is much more convenient to mount a cart due to easiness of having the little booger detached in your hands versus trying to do this while mounted on the fixed tonearm. I am sure you can get pretty good at it with practice also. None of this is too difficult for anyone wanting to learn it.
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This is great feedback. Thanks. I have watched some videos about adjustment and setup, and the balancing of the tonearm plus anti skate should be fine. I am even going to get a stylus scale just to ensure it's correct.

That's good to know on the headshells and cartridges. The mounting of the cartridges on the headshell is probably the hairiest thing for me at this point as it seems there are several things to consider from placement on the headshell, to how it aligns with the platter. I need to watch some more vids to get that one down, after I choose the turntable. I will look up VTA too.

I like how you put it, as I am getting into this to tinker and get back to the tactile nature of playing musical locally again, and enjoying that process.

From your previous question which I forgot to address, our favorite music genres are rock, EDM/IDM/EM, pop, trip-hop and lounge, metal, thrash, alternative, and some World bands like Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard. So I would like a cartridge that can handle all that fairly well. My wife and I are also susceptible to fatigure pretty quick on anything too bright. Just does our heads in.

Thanks again
 
Angsty said:
I don’t have any of these, but a number of people here have the Technics SL-1200GR and love it. The GR2 is even better but does not have the magnesium tonearm. That’s reserved for the G.

I’ve heard less about the other models on N&G, but I’d recommend the GR2 over the Planar 6 because of the removal headshell and the adjustable VTA.
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I am one of those with a SL-1200GR and I love mine. It would take a huge jump up for me to even think about an upgrade as it does everything I need it to and operates great.
 
wmeugene said:
I am one of those with a SL-1200GR and I love mine. It would take a huge jump up for me to even think about an upgrade as it does everything I need it to and operates great.
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Thanks for the response. That seems to be pretty consistent with what others have been saying.

May I ask what cartridge you're using on it and if you've done any upgrades to it?

Thanks again.
 
Perrin2025 said:
Hi - thanks for the feedback. You're right! I must have gotten that mixed up when I was looking at other Technics tables. I will update my original post and remove that aspect of the table.

It seems they're highly rated by people, and it's about the top of the price range for what I want to spend as we go down this path for the first time in decades. Got rid of everything decades ago, but feeling an urge to get back to a more tactile and local solution for music again.

Thanks again.
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If you want to go a bit lower in cost than the GR2, there is the SL-1500C.
 
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