Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

Mather said:
DELICIOUS

Half my records sound horrendous and I looooooove iiiiiit
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duke86fan said:
oh i dont wanna be cursed with anger about Gz
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Mather said:
The anger gives me power.
IT IS MY SUSTENANCE
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cant i have an inbetween where worn out of badly done records sound good but also i feel like im hearing a lot and feeling a nice bright but comfortable sheen (maybe nagaoka but with the more analytic instead of midforward hifimans?)
 
kvetcha said:
That's fair. I paid like 1.5x a 2M Black, but I got a deal and I know you got your Black at a discount.

The rebuild cost, though!
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How do you like the Soundsmith? I see you have the Zephyr Star? I assume this one?

It's my top contender with a Dynavector 17DX.

How do you find the SS contact line stylus?

I'm looking to pair it w/ a Technics SL-1200G and I've seen the SS and Dyna both mentioned as great complements to the TT.

It will be the stereo counterpart w/ a Hana SL Mono MC.

You quoted Mather as saying: "Half my records sound horrendous and I looooooove iiiiiit" and your response was that it sounds like you with the Soundsmith.

Were you meaning to say that the SS actually makes half of your records sound horrendous (making room for hyperbole? I'd love to hear your experience.
 
duke86fan said:
cant i have an inbetween where worn out of badly done records sound good but also i feel like im hearing a lot and feeling a nice bright but comfortable sheen (maybe nagaoka but with the more analytic instead of midforward hifimans?)
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That's roughly what I've ended up with. I'm running the AT740ml but the 540ml seems roughly around the same price as an Ortofon Blue and a shit ton less than the Nagaoka MP200. If you can listen to one then it's worth a go. Think it's comparable to the older 440ml.

And it's definitely got more get up and go than the nag but less dog scaring shit than the Orto Bronze I tried once upon a time.
 
Rowan said:
That's roughly what I've ended up with. I'm running the AT740ml but the 540ml seems roughly around the same price as an Ortofon Blue and a shit ton less than the Nagaoka MP200. If you can listen to one then it's worth a go. Think it's comparable to the older 440ml
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I had the 440mla. It was dope. Great tracker and minimized surface noise compared to cart I had before (it's been long enough that I do not remember what that cart was). The AT 440mlb is the successor to the mla.
 
A few of us were talking about the new Marantz 30 series recently, wherein I personally stated an interest in the SACD 30n.

Professional reviews - or at least from what I've been able to find - seem scant so far (besides pages announcing the forthcoming series).

Here is one I was able to find that covers both the amp & 30n:

alpha-audio.net

Alpha Audio NET - Review Marantz Model 30 and SACD 30N

Legacy… 50 years Model 30. Marantz celebrates it his way: with a new Model 30, complemented by the SACD 30N: a multifunctional player. Streaming and optical media in one nice box. Very conven…
alpha-audio.net alpha-audio.net
 
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displayname said:
And we won't even get into how many great songs are terrible recordings that can become entirely not fun on some systems. That's a whole additional element to this chasing the dragon element of the hobby.
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Coming from the audio engineering community, as you can imagine there are some staunch anti-vinyl folks who get a good chuckle out of 5 and 6 figure systems extracting information from a format that rolls off at 12KHz, sourced from a 44.1/16 source, as an example. I am not one of those engineers!
 
Lord Diaper Baby said:
How do you like the Soundsmith? I see you have the Zephyr Star? I assume this one?

It's my top contender with a Dynavector 17DX.

How do you find the SS contact line stylus?

I'm looking to pair it w/ a Technics SL-1200G and I've seen the SS and Dyna both mentioned as great complements to the TT.

It will be the stereo counterpart w/ a Hana SL Mono MC.

You quoted Mather as saying: "Half my records sound horrendous and I looooooove iiiiiit" and your response was that it sounds like you with the Soundsmith.

Were you meaning to say that the SS actually makes half of your records sound horrendous (making room for hyperbole? I'd love to hear your experience.
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Yeah! That’s the one.

I love it. It’s got channel separation and detail retrieval for days, creates a nice, clear sound field on the Klipsches. It is a bit sensitive to setup, so you’ve really gotta dial in the SRA, anti-skate and azimuth, but it’s a cart I find utterly satisfying.

that said, my progression has been 2M Bronze -> MoFi MasterTracker -> Zephyr, so I have a fairly limited pool of experience to draw from.

When I joke about half my records sounding horrendous, it’s more that the Soundsmith feels like such a detailed cart that, like the Ortofons, it does not paper over bad pressings or bad masters. But it does lend wonderful depth and energy to well-recorded, well-pressed music.

Happy to do needle drops if desired.
 
kvetcha said:
Yeah! That’s the one.

I love it. It’s got channel separation and detail retrieval for days, creates a nice, clear sound field on the Klipsches. It is a bit sensitive to setup, so you’ve really gotta dial in the SRA, anti-skate and azimuth, but it’s a cart I find utterly satisfying.

that said, my progression has been 2M Bronze -> MoFi MasterTracker -> Zephyr, so I have a fairly limited pool of experience to draw from.

Happy to do needle drops if desired.
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Do you have needle drops recorded of your two previous carts? If so, I'd personally be really interested in hearing the 3 to compare
 
Splunders said:
Do you have needle drops recorded of your two previous carts? If so, I'd personally be really interested in hearing the 3 to compare
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I do not. The Bronze was on a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon DC that I sold to a friend. I do have my MasterTracker on hand, but I’ve loaned my GeoDisc to a friend on the West Coast and I’m unsure whether I have it in me to do a double cart swap without it.
 
kvetcha said:
Yeah! That’s the one.

I love it. It’s got channel separation and detail retrieval for days, creates a nice, clear sound field on the Klipsches. It is a bit sensitive to setup, so you’ve really gotta dial in the SRA, anti-skate and azimuth, but it’s a cart I find utterly satisfying.

that said, my progression has been 2M Bronze -> MoFi MasterTracker -> Zephyr, so I have a fairly limited pool of experience to draw from.

Happy to do needle drops if desired.
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Cool. Cool.

The Zephyr has been on my RADAR for a long while; but I don't really NEED a cart right now (besides which I'm geographically separated from my stereo for work) so I've been holding off but love to hear you're enjoying it.

You mentioned the rebuild price, which, I agree, is super sweet. Although I think it takes like 8-12 weeks or something like that so I'll definitely be keeping a back-up for when that time comes.

I've used the 2M Bronze and I've nothing particularly bad, nor glowing to say about it. It served its purpose. Never used the MasterTracker, but it was on my mind when a MOFI deck was also on my mind.

So....it doesn't make half your records sound bad then?

I've seen Soundsmith mention that their contact line is " Optimized Contour Contact Line". You got any insight into this? An actual feat of cartridge engineering or a good tagline to set themselves apart from the pack?

I appreciate the offer for a needle drop but I'll do my best to get live fire demos. Capturing what something really sounds like through a secondary audio device (i.e. not straight to my ears) is tough. It's like shopping for a motorcycle exhaust - YouTube comparison vids are only gonna give me an approximation of the notes it hits.
 
Lord Diaper Baby said:
Cool. Cool.

The Zephyr has been on my RADAR for a long while; but I don't really NEED a cart right now (besides which I'm geographically separated from my stereo for work) so I've been holding off but love to hear you're enjoying it.

You mentioned the rebuild price, which, I agree, is super sweet. Although I think it takes like 8-12 weeks or something like that so I'll definitely be keeping a back-up for when that time comes.

I've used the 2M Bronze and I've nothing particularly bad, nor glowing to say about it. It served its purpose. Never used the MasterTracker, but it was on my mind when a MOFI deck was also on my mind.

So....it doesn't make half your records sound bad then?

I've seen Soundsmith mention that their contact line is " Optimized Contour Contact Line". You got any insight into this? An actual feat of cartridge engineering or a good tagline to set themselves apart from the pack?

I appreciate the offer for a needle drop but I'll do my best to get live fire demos. Capturing what something really sounds like through a secondary audio device (i.e. not straight to my ears) is tough. It's like shopping for a motorcycle exhaust - YouTube comparison vids are only gonna give me an approximation of the notes it hits.
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SoundSmith (really, Peter Ledermann himself) is not afraid of a bit of marketing showmanship, but he's also the real deal. I waffled back and forth a while, then had the pleasure of talking to Peter at an audio show last year, and listening to a couple of his carts on Soundsmith speakers and amps, and was blown away by how good everything sounded on a pair of bookshelves.

It's probably more accurate to say: the cart does not leave much cover for bad records.

I've got a hi-res USB analog to digital converter, so I could get you a 24-bit/192khz file for playback on your own system.
 
kvetcha said:
I do not. The Bronze was on a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon DC that I sold to a friend. I do have my MasterTracker on hand, but I’ve loaned my GeoDisc to a friend on the West Coast and I’m unsure whether I have it in me to do a double cart swap without it.
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Gotcha. Yeah, that's too much effort
 
kvetcha said:
Yeah! That’s the one.

I love it. It’s got channel separation and detail retrieval for days, creates a nice, clear sound field on the Klipsches. It is a bit sensitive to setup, so you’ve really gotta dial in the SRA, anti-skate and azimuth, but it’s a cart I find utterly satisfying.

that said, my progression has been 2M Bronze -> MoFi MasterTracker -> Zephyr, so I have a fairly limited pool of experience to draw from.

When I joke about half my records sounding horrendous, it’s more that the Soundsmith feels like such a detailed cart that, like the Ortofons, it does not paper over bad pressings or bad masters. But it does lend wonderful depth and energy to well-recorded, well-pressed music.

Happy to do needle drops if desired.
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Also what Klipsch you using? I had some a while back but been rocking Martin Logans the last couple years. The Fortes are the speakers I plan on getting next.

Finally what resistance are you finding success with? I know the site says >470. I’ve seen users saying around 1K is nice.

I’ll hit you up in the future for a drop. I won’t be back to my system till March.
 
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