Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

The feedback is super appreciated. And the intent was to have it be more of a starting point with intent to upgrade down the road component wise so I am on board with investing the bulk in the table. I feel dramatically more comfortable having a good baseline to work with
 
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I can attest to the aforementioned uturn suggestion I started with this based on the advice of those here and was extremely satisfied. I also am still using the Vincent pho-8 phono stage which may still be available online at a deep discount.
 
waruv said:
The feedback is super appreciated. And the intent was to have it be more of a starting point with intent to upgrade down the road component wise so I am on board with investing the bulk in the table. I feel dramatically more comfortable having a good baseline to work with
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While I really like the UTurn, in your situation, I’d go Fluance. The UTurn may hum with powered speakers. I’ve seen it before and couldn’t come up with a solution. UTurn knows there’s an issue and has a cure. Unfortunately, their cure doesn’t work.
 
After living with the Adcom GFA 545 Mark II for over 100 hours of listening I feel I can give some feedback. I always am hesitant to review things here because of my limited experiences on this journey but I want to provide feedback even if it is only absorbed by those whom have guided me on my journey.

My setup is as follows Pioneer PLX-1000, A/T VM95ML, Vincent PHO-8, Sound Artis Pre-1 (chinese tube preamp), Adcom GFA 545 II, Elac Debut f5.2.

I previously was using a NAD C 326bee Integrated and added the Adcom with the NAD as the Preamp for around 40 hours and then added the tube preamp.

My impressions so far with new setup are essentially all positive. When I change anything in my setup I attempt to listen with the presumption that it sounds the same.

I feel the most distinguishable differences are with Bass and Vocals. The Bass seems to be more "controlled" and is more pleasing. The bass at higher levels seems less "bloated"

Vocals seem to be "clearer" or more intelligible and overall more pleasing.

I like to listen to music on the higher side of the volume scale and when played at higher levels the Adcom seems to drastically outshine the NAD.

Finally I often times in recordings I listen to frequently sense that I hear subtleties that weren't prominent or not distinguishable previously, not at the same level as I have experienced when upgrading from my Grado black to the VM95ML but still noticeable.

The Sound Artist Preamp is my first device to utilize vacuum tubes. The change in sound with the tube pre vs solid state seems to and audible distortion that provides an enjoyable listening experience. I would not classify is at better or worse just different and I enjoy the way it subjectively does so.
 
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Does anyone here have any experience in "after market" stylus replacements for the Ortofon OM series (or any other for this matter)?

In an epic act of dumbfuckery today while wiping down my 2nd string Pro-Ject turntable and platter with a microfiber cloth a rouge corner of the cloth ripped off the needle 👎. It was the stock Ortofon 5E that came with it in which I was already thinking of upgrading anyway. Looking at the OM 20 stylus but saw some bootleg/aftermarket ones for under $50? Some claiming to be OM 30 sounding? Overall great reviews too?

I have an Ortofon Blue on my AT-120 turntable so I'm still entry level in general. With a 1 and 2 year old at home I have no one coming over to hang out and impress with name brand anything at the moment haha. Just trying to keep my vinyl collection and 2 turntable systems intact at this time!
 
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SanSeattle said:
Does anyone here have any experience in "after market" stylus replacements for the Ortofon OM series (or any other for this matter)?

In an epic act of dumbfuckery today while wiping down my 2nd string Pro-Ject turntable and platter with a microfiber cloth a rouge corner of the cloth ripped off the needle 👎. It was the stock Ortofon 5E that came with it in which I was already thinking of upgrading anyway. Looking at the OM 20 stylus but saw some bootleg/aftermarket ones for under $50? Some claiming to be OM 30 sounding? Overall great reviews too?

I have an Ortofon Blue on my AT-120 turntable so I'm still entry level in general. With a 1 and 2 year old at home I have no one coming over to hang out and impress with name brand anything at the moment haha. Just trying to keep my vinyl collection and 2 turntable systems intact at this time!
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Sorry to hear of your mishap. If it makes you feel any better, this happens to everyone sooner or later.

There’s only one aftermarket stylus I’d recommend- Jico. They are Japanese and make excellent styli. Other than that, I’d stick with original manufacturer’s replacements.
 
Ginormousthumbs said:
Tough crowd.

3 Foot RCA Cable Pair - Made with Canare L-4E6S, Star Quad, Audio Interconnect Cable and Amphenol ACPR Gold RCA Connectors – Directional Design - Custom Made by WORLDS BEST CABLES Amazon.com: 3 Foot RCA Cable Pair - Made with Canare L-4E6S, Star Quad, Audio Interconnect Cable and Amphenol ACPR Gold RCA Connectors – Directional Design - Custom Made by WORLDS BEST CABLES: Industrial & Scientific
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Haha I'm sorry, I knew I was being a dick. It appears these are manufactured by Canare, from what I can tell they're MAYBE a Japanese cable manufacturer and they have fairly good reviews in general for Canare branded cables. I have absolutely no idea if this cable will be good, but if it's actually made by Canare as it appears to be it seems like it's a decent buy at that price. But don't quote me on that I'm just going off of some Google searches on this one.
 
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Ginormousthumbs said:
Anyone ever use cables from the Worlds Best Cables brand? Saw someone on YT suggest their RCA cables.
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I use their 0.5ft RCAs on my office headphone setup. Mine have Mogami wire with Eminence connectors. I had a hard time finding 0.5ft interconnects so I took a shot and so far, I have no complaints. Mine came with a sheet saying it takes 175 hours to fully break-in which with their name, gave me a nice chuckle. :rolleyes:

Built quality is high; the heat-shrink is cut very cleanly and everything feels professionally built. The Eminence connectors on mine are actually pretty nice (they twist to lock). I don't think World's Best Cables do anything special except source parts and put them together. I honestly was just looking for functionality and didn't do any sound evaluations (like on my home system), but I'd read enough people saying Mogami wire was pretty good.

Hope this helps and good luck!
 
Ginormousthumbs said:
Tough crowd.
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Sorry about the tone of my reply too. I've been burned too many times by companies that crafted their names or the names of their products so that just saying the name gives them a compliment. I have a theory that companies do that when they know they won't get praise any other way.
Sorry I can't give any feedback on this particular "world's best."
 
HiFi Guy said:
While I really like the UTurn, in your situation, I’d go Fluance. The UTurn may hum with powered speakers. I’ve seen it before and couldn’t come up with a solution. UTurn knows there’s an issue and has a cure. Unfortunately, their cure doesn’t work.
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Not for nothing but Fluance just put up a new bamboo colorway of each of its turntables for pre-order. Pretty sharp if you ask me. I have an 85 and it’s a great table.

Hifi Turntables | Vinyl Record Players | Fluance

Fluance’s High Fidelity Turntables play traditional LP and EP vinyl records with absolutely stunning sound quality that achieves the purest analog sound reproduction. When you want to hear music the way the artist intended, choose your favorite 33 1/3 or 45 RPM record, slide it out of the...
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Anybody know a decent Digital (Toslink) cable to hook up to the Sprout100?
I have a not very big CD collection I'm not massively planning to expand (after getting rid of hundreds of CDs after getting my first ipod, dumb mistake looking back) so will just likely use my Sony Blu-ray Player or Xbox One with Groove app. Don't think it's worth the money or space for me to upgrade to a dedicated CD transport. I was looking at the Blue Jeans Optical Digital Audio Cable on their website, I'm assuming that should work fine?
 
wynn72 said:
Anybody know a decent Digital (Toslink) cable to hook up to the Sprout100?
I have a not very big CD collection I'm not massively planning to expand (after getting rid of hundreds of CDs after getting my first ipod, dumb mistake looking back) so will just likely use my Sony Blu-ray Player or Xbox One with Groove app. Don't think it's worth the money or space for me to upgrade to a dedicated CD transport. I was looking at the Blue Jeans Optical Digital Audio Cable on their website, I'm assuming that should work fine?
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I’m of the opinion that any decent digital cable should perform identically in short runs.
 
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