Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

Mather said:
I.
WILL.
BE.
HERE.
ALL.
WEEK.

don't forget to tip your waitress, try the lasagna
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BK9.gif
 
Hollywood said:
Fair enough. From memory I believe these are the companies (brands) he deals with:

  • NAD
  • Pro-ject
  • Audio Technica
  • Thorens
  • Marantz
  • Denon
  • Arcam
  • Cambridge?
  • Audiolab
  • Mark Levinson
  • Krell
  • Tri Art
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I would see if the dealer discount brings the Marantz TT-15 into your price range. I haven't heard it myself, but I've read enough about it that I would consider it from the list you provided.

Joe Mac said:
PS I can’t find any professional reviews either which I tend not to take as a good sign...
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I wouldn't take that as too much of a sign. There are mountains of amazing gear that never makes it to a reviewers keyboard, even if they've heard some of it. The professional review industry is pretty complicated world. There's relationships with manufactures, distributors, gear shipping, margins, sales productions, advertising relationships, review and ad costs, logistics, etc. There's a reason you see so many more reviews for big companies than you do from smaller boutique companies. And there's a reason you don't see every single product from any company reviewed. There are pretty complicated formulas that equate to what actually makes it into professional reviewers hands, and follow up equations of what makes it to print. I've seen really positive reviews get spiked over a single sentence that rubbed one person the wrong way. We probably only see 70-80% of what's written, and even less of what's been discussed in the editing room. Let alone what's out there.

I take the word of people who have a similar taste in gear as me over the word of a review. Unfortunately that's equally hard to find sometimes. And I think a reviewer only becomes truly valuable when you know they like stuff that you like. Outside of that a review is an entertaining advertisement.
 
displayname said:
I would see if the dealer discount brings the Marantz TT-15 into your price range. I haven't heard it myself, but I've read enough about it that I would consider it from the list you provided.


I wouldn't take that as too much of a sign. There are mountains of amazing gear that never makes it to a reviewers keyboard, even if they've heard some of it. The professional review industry is pretty complicated world. There's relationships with manufactures, distributors, gear shipping, margins, sales productions, advertising relationships, review and ad costs, logistics, etc. There's a reason you see so many more reviews for big companies than you do from smaller boutique companies. And there's a reason you don't see every single product from any company reviewed. There are pretty complicated formulas that equate to what actually makes it into professional reviewers hands, and follow up equations of what makes it to print. I've seen really positive reviews get spiked over a single sentence that rubbed one person the wrong way. We probably only see 70-80% of what's written, and even less of what's been discussed in the editing room. Let alone what's out there.

I take the word of people who have a similar taste in gear as me over the word of a review. Unfortunately that's equally hard to find sometimes. And I think a reviewer only becomes truly valuable when you know they like stuff that you like. Outside of that a review is an entertaining advertisement.
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but there are also so many reviews/reviewers. A small company Id agree but with the big boys if they don’t get it out to at least one reviewer there’s a reason for it for me. A bit like shit films never having critic screenings.
 
Joe Mac said:
but there are also so many reviews/reviewers. A small company Id agree but with the big boys if they don’t get it out to at least one reviewer there’s a reason for it for me. A bit like shit films never having critic screenings.
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Part of that reason could be sales expectations and profit margins. NAD gets plenty of gear professionally reviewed, but they still can't have everything reviewed. Basically if they know they can sell 10X more units of an integrated amp, and that integrated amp nets a higher margin, why would they bother dealing with logistics of getting sample units of this preamp out to reviewers. As a matter of fact, if some of their amps have positive comments about their built in preamps, there is a very high probability that this is those exact same modules in it's own casing, so there may indirectly be professional reviews out there.

I'm not saying this specific NAD preamp is great, it honestly doesn't look like anything worth writing home about. But I still think it's flawed logic to write of any gear because it hasn't been professionally reviewed.
 
Taken from an online review by Andrew Robinson.
  • The X2 is not going to play well with all types of MM phono stages, built-in to your existing preamp or external. I'm not entirely sure if this is a gain issue, or just my review sample, but suffice to say, the X2 can go from being the epitome of neutrality with the right setup, to dull and lifeless with the wrong one.
The more reason to purchase the right phono preamp. 🤷‍♂️
 
Hollywood said:
Taken from an online review by Andrew Robinson.
  • The X2 is not going to play well with all types of MM phono stages, built-in to your existing preamp or external. I'm not entirely sure if this is a gain issue, or just my review sample, but suffice to say, the X2 can go from being the epitome of neutrality with the right setup, to dull and lifeless with the wrong one.
The more reason to purchase the right phono preamp. 🤷‍♂️
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Oh ok. I get matching your cart to your stage but matching your table to your stage is a new one on me!
 
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