[NeilPeart]

I would like to thank the members of this forum for helping me select and configure my turntable and its associated components (and for providing valuable input and insight into the analog format, regarding its strengths and weaknesses). Sleestack explained the basic essentials of the analog medium, and he allowed me to clean all of my records with his VPI machine (which is truly necessary, especially with the amount of used records I have). He was also generously donated his Grado Platinum to me after I snapped the stylus off my Goldring cartridge (don't ask). Eweitzman was also instrumental in helping me complete the vinyl quest. He helped me solder a tone-arm lead that had snapped off (again, don't ask) and basically worked with me the whole day configuring the various settings of the tone-arm (vertical tracking, lateral tracking angle, tracking force, etc.). The Anti-skate is on the way, but it's functioning quite well as is. I'm now preparing for bed while enjoying classical LPs unavailable on compact discs, long-lost jazz albums and old rock favorites. I still enjoy digital and it’s my primary format, but the romantic appeal of the analog world is indeed intoxicating and certainly a nice (if fleeting) escape from today's digital domain. Thank you again, Head-Fi! Richard and Eric I owe you big time – feel free to drop by and enjoy a REAL vinyl rig anytime!

 

[Jahn]

gorgeous! in that spirit, i'm going to fire up some talking heads on my platter machine right now!

 

[Voltron]

Congrats on the new rig NP! I am still using our old Dual, but I was talking VPI TTs with Todd the other day. Very tempted to get something more worthy. Let us know how you like the Music Hall! Oh, and nice pics as usual.

Cheers

 

[Wmcmanus]

Nice report, and pics! Ah, the love of music and joy that a new rig can bring when it hits that sweet spot in your heart! For me it has been the K1000s of late, and what the EAR Yoshino V20 has done to open them up. Supertramp like never before tonight! About the only two plunges left for me to take are vinyl and balanced.

 

[eyeteeth]

I always thought that green platter Music Hall was so handsome. Nice pics!

When you've got a great sounding LP, even great digital can't compete.

Vinyl can become a "sorry about your wallet" in that the upgrading can be incremental. I'm finding myself with increasing amounts of beautifully quiet, rich sounding new release mono LPs and am looking at a tonearm upgrade to a Moerch or Hadcock with removeable headshell so I can quickly swap a stereo cartridge for a mono.

HiFi is just evil.

 

[Sleestack]

Neil - Great to see that you finally got it up and running. Looks great too. Love that platter. Any hum from that Grado Platinum?


Wcmamannus- glad to hear the EAR V20 is working out for you. It is truly a beautiful piece.. I miss it every day.

 

[utep10]

L,

Nice TT. But I'm sure the pictures still don't do it justice

Is that invitation only for Richard and Eric

??

Curious what rock favorites you still have on vinyl?

Enjoy the music my friend.

 

[Aman]

Nice setup! I love my Grado Platinum as well, and love how sufficiently it relates with my tonearm (a very similar one to yours).

I need to go ahead and upgrade my phono stage. I'm still using a wretched Music Hall one - maybe a tubed phono stage is in my sights

 

[NeilPeart]

That invitation stands for anyone - you're welcome to visit any time!

Rock favorites on vinyl: Fragile, Harvest, Permanent Waves, Aja, Wish You Were Here and many more (about 50 or so rock records, with about half of them in excellent condition).

Richard,
As far as I can tell there is no hum generated by the Grado cartridge, which is contrary to what the good folks at Music Hall warned. Perhaps the hum is an issue for those with other problems. While the table and arm are excellent (especially after adjusting the VTA), the Grado cartridge is what lends everything the utter musicality and warmth. The only element holding my system from achieving excellence is the Parasound Zphono, but for an entry-level phono-stage I cannot expect top-of-the-line performance (and really the difference was only noticeable after comparing the Zphono to Eric’s modded Yamaha unit). Still, when I decide to upgrade the Zphono will be the first to go – I guess it never ends…

Thank you all for the kind words - I'm certainly enjoying the music!

 

[Aman]

Quote:

As far as I can tell there is no hum generated by the Grado cartridge, which is contrary to what the good folks at Music Hall warned

I'm starting to believe that this is a ploy by Roy Hall to get people to buy his own lesser cartridges for his tables...

 

[Rob80b]

Glad to see you're enjoying vinyl. I'm listening right now to some as I came across this tread.
Since I picked some Grado sr225's it really brought my deck back to life

 

[nabwong]

arghhhhhhh making me wanna get a turntable.

 

[daycart1]

Nice pieces of vinyl are special magic with good headphones! But noisy pieces of vinyl are better enjoyed with loudspeakers.

Which way have you been going?

I've read that Grado cartridge hum is highly dependent on a few critical variables--usually there is no problem.

 

[cpw]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilPeart As far as I can tell there is no hum generated by the Grado cartridge, which is contrary to what the good folks at Music Hall warned. Perhaps the hum is an issue for those with other problems.

I had a Grado plat and did have hum issues.
They disappearded immediately when I switched to a Sumiko cart.
Congrats on a nice rig. Had one of those myself for a time though not at the same time as the Grado.
Now all you need is a VPI record cleaning machine!

CPW

 

[fureshi]

wow, drool. congrats on the nice rig! the first time i heard vinyl compared to digital, i was blown away with how smooth and more lifelike it sounded. we compared a columbia six eye recording of take five to the cd version. the vinyl version was easily the better of the two.