Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

@Tyr
I have the same deck (Super Prime Scout) and love it. It’s very quiet, musical, and built like a tank. There is very little chance you will “need” to upgrade to another table after the VPI. I added IsoAcoustics Gaia III feet and the background is just pitch black now.

I’ve used it with a Zu/Denon 103 Mk II and now a Hana SL cart, and currently paired with a Sutherland 20/20 and love the combo.

I don’t have much experience with the other two decks, so I can’t give you comparisons sadly, but I will say I’d put my deck up against anything retailing less than $4k with confidence.
 
apholden said:
My dad bought a new house in Jupiter, FL in the late 90s. It had metal studs for whatever reason. Everything else has been wood, though.
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The reason is likely that new construction here has to be built to resist hurricanes. Your dad's home was built after Hurricane Andrew decimated Miami.
 
I’m happy enough with my set up, it’s a bit of a generic and vanilla set up though and I’ve been looking enviously at people’s set ups on here and I’m just interested to see what people would upgrade and with what?

I don’t really want to go over £1000 and the upgrading would be gradual (have a baby on the way)...

Pro-ject essential ii

Ortofon OM5E cartridge

Marantz PM6005 Integrated Amplifier

Mission Stancette speaker stands

Wharfedale diamond 220 speakers
 
HiFi Guy said:
@MigraineBoy I'd look at a cartridge and phono stage upgrade. Also a vacuum record cleaning system of some sort.
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Thanks @HiFi Guy

I’ve got a Pro-Ject Phono MM box knocking around, would it improve the system if I placed this after the TT and then into the Marantz? I stopped using it when I bought the Marantz because of the phono input.

I’ll definitely upgrade the cartridge next, possibly the Ortofon 2M blue cartridge?
 
MigraineBoy said:
Thanks @HiFi Guy

I’ve got a Pro-Ject Phono MM box knocking around, would it improve the system if I placed this after the TT and then into the Marantz? I stopped using it when I bought the Marantz because of the phono input.

I’ll definitely upgrade the cartridge next, possibly the Ortofon 2M blue cartridge?
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You can try the Pro-ject, but I suspect that's a sideways move. I was thinking something like a Vincent PHO-8 and an A/T VM95ML cartridge.
 
wooha said:
FWIW, I was leaning towards that VPI before I found the deal on my Pro-Ject. But as you said, I don't think you can go wrong at that price range.
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Thank you for the feedback! Do you have any regrets with the choice you made? Are there other factors that contributed to you going with the Project?

HiFi Guy said:
That's a tough call. I love my Ultradeck. But I will say the only other turntable out there on the market that I'd want in the price range if I were in the market would be the VPI Prime Scout, which is a dealer exclusive from Upscale Audio. Kevin Deal is good to work with if you don't want preowned. He also sells the MoFi.

Keep in mind, most of us got our MoFis before the price increase. The better arm and platter on the MoFi is enough for me to knock the Music Hall from consideration.

The down side to the VPI (or maybe not depending on you) Is that the VPI does not come with a dust cover and they are expensive-a few hundred dollars.

Two big upsides to the VPI- the Prime Scout has a 10.5" arm for even lower tracking error than the MoFi, which has lower tracking error than the Music Hall. The arm is a unipivot, which is a bit weird to get used to- it moves on a single point at the rear and will wobble side to side until it stabilizes. The great point of this is that mounting cartridges is a breeze- you unplug the arm wand and can literally remove it and take to wherever you want to install the cartridge, another room for better lighting for instance. You can even buy an additional arm wand so you could have a mono cartridge and stereo cartridge on its own wand- but this is expensive. The really cool thing though is once you have the cartridges set up, you could switch arm wands in 30 seconds.

It comes down to how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. Also @SnowmaNick has a Prime Scout. Maybe he will chime in.

I do have an idea as far as cartridges either way. Don't get the MoFi with the MoFi cartridge unless it's the Master Tracker.
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All of this is wonderful! Thank you so much for the in-depth info. The dust cover issue isn't really an issue for me as much as I would be worried about the difficulty of getting the settings dialed in on the TT itself. Yeah the upsides of the Prime Scout are really putting it near the top of my list due to all of the small upgrades that come with it.

While I am still on the fence a bit between this and the MoFi but I'm waiting and watching for deals while I make up my mind :)
 
SnowmaNick said:
@Tyr
I have the same deck (Super Prime Scout) and love it. It’s very quiet, musical, and built like a tank. There is very little chance you will “need” to upgrade to another table after the VPI. I added IsoAcoustics Gaia III feet and the background is just pitch black now.

I’ve used it with a Zu/Denon 103 Mk II and now a Hana SL cart, and currently paired with a Sutherland 20/20 and love the combo.

I don’t have much experience with the other two decks, so I can’t give you comparisons sadly, but I will say I’d put my deck up against anything retailing less than $4k with confidence.
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Excellent! Thank you for the info. That makes me feel a lot better to hear as the VPI is currently at the top of my list. If you do not mind, which table were you coming from prior to the VPI? Also, any issues with outer warps on records giving the tonearm any issues? I wouldn't normally think of something like that but I did see it mentioned on a review somewhere out there.
 
Tyr said:
Excellent! Thank you for the info. That makes me feel a lot better to hear as the VPI is currently at the top of my list. If you do not mind, which table were you coming from prior to the VPI? Also, any issues with outer warps on records giving the tonearm any issues? I wouldn't normally think of something like that but I did see it mentioned on a review somewhere out there.
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Unless the warps are really bad, the tone arm tracks fine.

This replaced a highly modified Rega Planar 3 (2016 model with almost everything you could do to it being done). My other current table is a resto-mod AR The Turntable.
 
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Tyr said:
Thank you for the feedback! Do you have any regrets with the choice you made? Are there other factors that contributed to you going with the Project?


All of this is wonderful! Thank you so much for the in-depth info. The dust cover issue isn't really an issue for me as much as I would be worried about the difficulty of getting the settings dialed in on the TT itself. Yeah the upsides of the Prime Scout are really putting it near the top of my list due to all of the small upgrades that come with it.

While I am still on the fence a bit between this and the MoFi but I'm waiting and watching for deals while I make up my mind :)
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Between the used VPI you found and the MoFi at $1999 without cartridge, I'd get the VPI.
 
Tyr said:
Thank you for the feedback! Do you have any regrets with the choice you made? Are there other factors that contributed to you going with the Project?
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No regrets at all. I have not one single complaint. I love the combination of engineering concepts it uses from the huge mass to the "floating" magnetic feet, the ease of use with the built-in speedbox, and it looks as good as it sounds.

I've quickly learned to never say never when it comes to being done with hi-fi upgrades and finding a "forever" component... but as of today my TT is on the bottom of the list of things I'd potentially change in my system.
 
MigraineBoy said:
I’m happy enough with my set up, it’s a bit of a generic and vanilla set up though and I’ve been looking enviously at people’s set ups on here and I’m just interested to see what people would upgrade and with what?

I don’t really want to go over £1000 and the upgrading would be gradual (have a baby on the way)...

Pro-ject essential ii

Ortofon OM5E cartridge

Marantz PM6005 Integrated Amplifier

Mission Stancette speaker stands

Wharfedale diamond 220 speakers
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I had a similar set up at one point. I’ve gone through around 3-4 setups in 2 years. When I first started out it was:

-Crosley Dilla Turntable
-Flashcube speaker
-some cheap little preamp

That quickly morphed into:

-PLX-1000 W/ Ortofon Cart and stylus
-Bose Speakers
-Technics Receiver

Then it got serious:

-Technics 1200G W/ Grado
-Marantz SR6008 Receiver
-Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary Speakers

Then recently I switched out the SR6008 for a Marantz 2285 Receiver and I couldn’t be happier. The only thing I may upgrade are my Speakers. Thought about buying the JBL L100’s but I can wait for a sale or price drop on those.
 
So, I broke the needle in my 2m Blue. Long story involving my son helping me by playing a record for me...

Anyway, so I'm running my 2m red and looking for a new cart. I like the sound of the 2m blue and that is about my budget ($250-300) for a new one. I may go higher as I can be persuaded by promises of audiophile bliss.

I like the balance of detail and warmth with the blue and the clarity and low end in general with Ortofon. Seems to me people either love them or hate them.

Does anyone have recommendations in this range that would be an upgrade or should I stick with the blue?

I listen to mostly rock from indie to classic, singer songwriters, some country, and lastly jazz and standards.

Thanks in advance for your insights.
 
Ethos99 said:
So, I broke the needle in my 2m Blue. Long story involving my son helping me by playing a record for me...

Anyway, so I'm running my 2m red and looking for a new cart. I like the sound of the 2m blue and that is about my budget ($250-300) for a new one. I may go higher as I can be persuaded by promises of audiophile bliss.

I like the balance of detail and warmth with the blue and the clarity and low end in general with Ortofon. Seems to me people either love them or hate them.

Does anyone have recommendations in this range that would be an upgrade or should I stick with the blue?

I listen to mostly rock from indie to classic, singer songwriters, some country, and lastly jazz and standards.

Thanks in advance for your insights.
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Which turntable do you have?
 
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