Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

I’d pass over the Fluance, it’s a great table but definitely has some short comings that I think could leave you unsatisfied if you try and upgrade a rig around it. One it becomes the lowest rung in your signal chain it’s weaknesses become apparent, specifically it’s prone to IGD and doesn’t track more sibilance prone passages with great finesse. Also, I think it will be more of a lateral move with your table. I’d spring for the PLX if it’s within budget, if you want to stretch your budget maybe a Rega P3?
 
MikeH said:
at a quick glance, the wow and flutter seems to be 0.07 for the Fluance and 0.01 for PLX. Belt vs direct drive is probably the biggest difference. PLX also has the swappable headshell and I don’t believe the Fluance does. PLX seems to allow you to swap the power cable too. I’m sure there are other differences with the tone arms too—does the Fluance allow you to adjust VTA for example?

Whether or not all of this is worth the extra cost is probably a personal preference. Depends on how far the rabbit hole you want to go with cables + ease to swap carts. From nearly everything I’ve read, the PLX is ranked higher across the board.
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Thansk!

It's been a while but I thought it had VTA. The drives are apples and oranges. I see W/F seems to be significant, but they are in the range being able to track. I could have sworn they both had swappable headshells too. I'm not a power Cable junkie myself. Thanks for the input. None of these would have made me tell the poster that it wasn't a significant step above the U-turn which has virtually no skate and no way to track better cartridges, and the fluance was on his list already. That's just my take.
 
Ghost said:
I’d pass over the Fluance, it’s a great table but definitely has some short comings that I think could leave you unsatisfied if you try and upgrade a rig around it. One it becomes the lowest rung in your signal chain it’s weaknesses become apparent, specifically it’s prone to IGD and doesn’t track more sibilance prone passages with great finesse. Also, I think it will be more of a lateral move with your table. I’d spring for the PLX if it’s within budget, if you want to stretch your budget maybe a Rega P3?
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This is good info. Thanks for the specifics. Why does it struggle with IGD? Does it not adjust for anti-skate?
 
VMPKJ said:
Thansk!

It's been a while but I thought it had VTA. The drives are apples and oranges. I see W/F seems to be significant, but they are in the range being able to track. I could have sworn they both had swappable headshells too. I'm not a power Cable junkie myself. Thanks for the input. None of these would have made me tell the poster that it wasn't a significant step above the U-turn which has virtually no skate and no way to track better cartridges, and the fluance was on his list already. That's just my take.
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I suppose the other way to think about this is that you've proved that you can save $1,000, so the question is what can you do best with $1k chunks? Feels like a new phono and speakers covers this one, so the next could be a turntable (feels like PLX range) and the next a better amp?
 
Thackeraye said:
I suppose the other way to think about this is that you've proved that you can save $1,000, so the question is what can you do best with $1k chunks? Feels like a new phono and speakers covers this one, so the next could be a turntable (feels like PLX range) and the next a better amp?
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Sure, but the original inquiry was from someone who wasn't looking to move to a more high fi system anytime soon. Simply wanted to know if that was worthwhile. I wasn't aware that these two were very far apart at the time. A while back around here they were considered fairly close. The adjustments are similar, but it sounds like The Fluance doesn't track as well as I thought.
 
VMPKJ said:
This is good info. Thanks for the specifics. Why does it struggle with IGD? Does it not adjust for anti-skate?
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Not sure but it’s been a consistent pain point for me, started noticing it as soon as I got a nicer pre-amp, then it just became more prominent with the new speakers! The anti-skate is adjustable but I’ve found it to have no significant impact, could be the quality of the tonearm?

A record like Jim Sullivan’s UFO is rendered unlistenable for me by the time it’s nearing the label.
 
Then you should be careful with the Shibata's I have a couple records I used on my U-turn that started getting inner groove. A few of them still have it slightly in those spots and I suspect the poor anti-skate I had back then actually made the finer tip cause damage in hindsight.
Ghost said:
Not sure but it’s been a consistent pain point for me, started noticing it as soon as I got a nicer pre-amp, then it just became more prominent with the new speakers! The anti-skate is adjustable but I’ve found it to have no significant impact, could be the quality of the tonearm?

A record like Jim Sullivan’s UFO is rendered unlistenable for me by the time it’s nearing the label.
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VMPKJ said:
Thansk!

It's been a while but I thought it had VTA. The drives are apples and oranges. I see W/F seems to be significant, but they are in the range being able to track. I could have sworn they both had swappable headshells too. I'm not a power Cable junkie myself. Thanks for the input. None of these would have made me tell the poster that it wasn't a significant step above the U-turn which has virtually no skate and no way to track better cartridges, and the fluance was on his list already. That's just my take.
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Fair points. Not sure on VTA (I didn't dig deep into it) and you may be right on headshells. Overall, I know people really tend to like their PLXs more than those with the Fluance.

For me, I think that I'd save up and do a bigger jump in TT or upgrade some combo of preamp/speakers/cart first to get a bigger bang for the buck. The Fluance doesn't seem like a drastic jump up in sound quality from the UTurn and I don't think the Uturn is the weakest link in OP's chain. Eventually they will likely want to replace the turntable especially if everything else gets upgraded. Don't know if the PLX is the best in its price point, but I do know people seem to like it a lot.
 
Not specifically vinyl related (never listen with headphones), but I'm very close to picking up a pair of Sennheiser Momentum 3s. Anything I should know? Just kind of aiming to max out on quality in a pair of wireless/noise cancelling headphones at normal consumer grade.
 
MikeH said:
at a quick glance, the wow and flutter seems to be 0.07 for the Fluance and 0.01 for PLX. Belt vs direct drive is probably the biggest difference. PLX also has the swappable headshell and I don’t believe the Fluance does. PLX seems to allow you to swap the power cable too. I’m sure there are other differences with the tone arms too—does the Fluance allow you to adjust VTA for example?

Whether or not all of this is worth the extra cost is probably a personal preference. Depends on how far the rabbit hole you want to go with cables + ease to swap carts. From nearly everything I’ve read, the PLX is ranked higher across the board.
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Here’s the thing. The power chord is actually a weakness of the plx because it means the power supply is done onboard. I’d rather the wall wart to upgrade to a linear power supply than that. Both tables have removable headshells.

The plx probably has more scope to modify with the KAB tonearm damper, fancy feet, a funk firm mat and those technics style tables are actually pretty doable in terms of changing out the tonearm. Whether that provides bang for buck is another argument.

Personally if I already owned a perfectly serviceable table like the u-turn I’d keep saving and adding to the pot and skip both.
 
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So I never owned or even seen a PLX, but I owned a Fluance RT81. I would say the weakest link is the tonearm. It is very light and fells very cheap. They have removable headshell though, which is a very nice feature. The RT81 didn't have VTA adjustments and neither does the upper models. Overall I think the RT85 is a very fine TT, and I think for a significant step up you would need to spend at least 3x the price. Not sure the PLX is that big of a step up either. Money better spend on amp/speakers as well for me.
 
So the ARCAM arrived this weekend and instantly it was clearer in the mids-mid high's compared to the Oppo. Things were just less busy in there. Bass was a bit tighter too. This stage is just a tad wider. I'd say it splits the difference between the Oppo and my vinyl system at least. There is something about the current vinyl setup that makes those high tom, snare, symbol frequencies forward/present without being harsh at all. This does not do that, that could come down to mastering with the varieties I have being different masters though. I'll stick with the ARCAM though in a vacuum you can't go wrong with either.

EDIT: switched back to vinyl on one... it can't be just mastering. The vinyl is in the room in a way the the SACD simply isn't. It's similar, but not the same.
 
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MikeH said:
www.musicdirect.com

Wharfedale - Linton 85th Anniversary Bookshelf Speakers (Pair)

The world's largest online retailer of high-end audio, audiophile music, and accessories. We specialize in vinyl records and turntables.
www.musicdirect.com www.musicdirect.com

Is black oak a new color option? Also did the price go up?
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It must be! I’ve not seen that before. Having had Black Oak Tannoy speakers for 16 and half years I’ve got to say that the walnut looks miles better 😂

And yes that’s $300 more, kinda not surprised, for the same reason as everything else it seems like all gear has gone up by a minimum of 10% in the second half of the year
 
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Joe Mac said:
It must be! I’ve not seen that before. Having had Black Oak Tannoy speakers for 16 and half years I’ve got to say that the walnut looks miles better 😂
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I'm bummed they raised the price on speakers + stands just as I was going to buy them haha. I think open box are now the price that the brand new used to be. the speakers are now $1800 with stands or $1500 for speakers and $500 for stands separately.

or maybe i'm going crazy and thats what the prices used to be...?
 
MikeH said:
I'm bummed they raised the price on speakers + stands just as I was going to buy them haha. I think open box are now the price that the brand new used to be. the speakers are now $1800 with stands or $1500 for speakers and $500 for stands separately.

or maybe i'm going crazy and thats what the prices used to be...?
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No it used to be $1299 and $1499 for the combination. I think the stands on their own used to be $300 but I’m a little more hazy on that one.

Still showing as the €1199 here for the combo, which was the price I paid, but I’m sure that when back stock is cleared that we will see a bump too.
 
Joe Mac said:
No it used to be $1299 and $1499 for the combination. I think the stands on their own used to be $300 but I’m a little more hazy on that one.

Still showing as the €1199 here for the combo, which was the price I paid, but I’m sure that when back stock is cleared that we will see a bump too.
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Yea looks like price is already jacked up everywhere here...i'll try to see if i can find anywhere in the US that has them for the old price and may finally pull the trigger. There's an open box for the Walnut ones at MD but no open box stands, so it ends up only saving $50 or something overall to buy open box speakers but new separate stands.
 
MikeH said:
Yea looks like price is already jacked up everywhere here...i'll try to see if i can find anywhere in the US that has them for the old price and may finally pull the trigger. There's an open box for the Walnut ones at MD but no open box stands, so it ends up only saving $50 or something overall to buy open box speakers but new separate stands.
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check on reverb for md open box as well.

Inflation is here :mad:
 
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