$1000 budget. NYC Apartment Setup

Mike A, If you get the Orbit I would recommend the Grado Black 2/3(or similiar). Forgiving on lesser pressings, smooth, and musical and when the stylus wears out you can upgrade to the great 8mz stylus on there.

If you get the Orbit from Uturn you can order the "Custom" and have the Grado preinstalled. If you pick up a used one, eventually you can grab a Black3 for $99.
 
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HayesWeighsIn said:
I’ve spent time with both the Blue and Bronze - I prefer the Blue all day every day. I have upset some folks with this opinion! 😂
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The tonearm adjustability also plays a part in how well it works. A Bronze with a Fine Line stylus is going to be more sensitive to both vertical tracking angle and azimuth in set up than an elliptical. Many tonearms don’t allow for azimuth adjustment to maximize performance. The lower the adjustability, the safer you are sticking to better quality ellipticals.

Mechanical systems in vinyl have many quirks, which is one reason why vinyl setups can sound so much more different from one another than digital systems do.
 
Angsty said:
The tonearm adjustability also plays a part in how well it works. A Bronze with a Fine Line stylus is going to be more sensitive to both vertical tracking angle and azimuth in set up than an elliptical. Many tonearms don’t allow for azimuth adjustment to maximize performance. The lower the adjustability, the safer you are sticking to better quality ellipticals.

Mechanical systems in vinyl have many quirks, which is one reason why vinyl setups can sound so much more different from one another than digital systems do.
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Hey! Just saw in your signature that you have a Traveler. Does yours have that little dial on the side of the tonearm mount? If so, what does it do?
 
HayesWeighsIn said:
PS - @MikeH , you moved to Tarrytown? Great spot. I was born in New Rochelle.
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yep! We bought a house in Tarrytown last year and left the big city behind. I grew up in Ossining so I know New Rochelle well! Small world.

Also Tarrytown music hall just opened a record shop…all used records but donations. Almost everything is $2 with the occasional $5 or $10 album. So that’s gonna be dangerous
 
MikeH said:
yep! We bought a house in Tarrytown last year and left the big city behind. I grew up in Ossining so I know New Rochelle well! Small world.

Also Tarrytown music hall just opened a record shop…all used records but donations. Almost everything is $2 with the occasional $5 or $10 album. So that’s gonna be dangerous
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That is wild. I'll make it an even smaller world - I went to kindergarten and first grade at St Augustine's, and pre-pandemic, I played several times at Sing Sing Kill.

One of my adult guitar students is an usher at Tarrytown Music Hall - he told me about that record shop, dangerous indeed! We'll plan a hang and a flip when I'm up later this year!
 
HayesWeighsIn said:
That is wild. I'll make it an even smaller world - I went to kindergarten and first grade at St Augustine's, and pre-pandemic, I played several times at Sing Sing Kill.

One of my adult guitar students is an usher at Tarrytown Music Hall - he told me about that record shop, dangerous indeed! We'll plan a hang and a flip when I'm up later this year!
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Definitely need to dig through the albums in the shop to find goodies (there was a whole crate of Joan Baez and a whole crate of Streisand for example) but I get the feeling that it will be a good place for jazz records since the guy running it seems to know more about rock records.

Finally went to Sing Sing Kill the other week. Pretty cool spot!
 
zdkaiser said:
I've never been impressed with Uturn tables. I'd recommend you keep your AT120 turntable for now and add:

Audio Technica VM95 shibata cartridge ($199)
Marantz PM6007 amp with phono stage ($799)
Wharfdale Diamond 12.0 bookshelf speakers ($350)
Speaker wire with banana plugs ($50)

$1400 total.
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Exactly what I would suggest. You might be able find open box PM8006 around $900 from Safe Sound.
The jump from the LP120 to PLX1000 is totally worth the money but a nice amp, cart and preamp is what I would do now with that budget.
Nobody has mentioned the Elacs either which are great value for their price point.
 
For those that like coaxial speakers, the KEF Q150 is on sale through Jan 16 for $350. It typically sells for $600. I have the LS50 and I really like them; they sound very similar to the upper range of my Thiel CS6’s.

www.shop.us.kef.com

Q150 Bookshelf Speaker | KEF

Two-way bookshelf The Q150 proves that the best things come in small packages. A Uni-Q driver and CFD port mean it punches way above its weight. Q Series bookshelf speakers excel in small spaces. KEF's Uni-Q driver array plus Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) port tech equals high resolution...
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Another question: if I wanted to listen to a mono album in true mono, is that a setting that would need to be dictated on the receiver?
 
David A. said:
Another question: if I wanted to listen to a mono album in true mono, is that a setting that would need to be dictated on the receiver?
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Either that or assuming you are going for the PLX-1000 having a second headshell with a true mono cartridge. You have to be careful here- many lower priced budget cartridges are just strapped stereo cartridges- same as using a mono botton.

If you went Grado for example- that’s a true mono cartridge. If you had a Grado stereo and mono from the same series and identical headshells, you could go back and forth without changing any settings on the turntable.
 
HiFi Guy said:
Either that or assuming you are going for the PLX-1000 having a second headshell with a true mono cartridge. You have to be careful here- many lower priced budget cartridges are just strapped stereo cartridges- same as using a mono botton.

If you went Grado for example- that’s a true mono cartridge. If you had a Grado stereo and mono from the same series and identical headshells, you could go back and forth without changing any settings on the turntable.
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Swapping head shells seems like the most elegant solution.

This is what I get for being a Sinatra fan and remembering that those mono mixes typically blow the stereo mixes out of the water.
 
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