[yeahx]

As the product is so good, a clone is being produced in Asia and typically sold under other names. The clone I bought to try is labeled as Super Exstatic (?). Looks exactly like the Hunt. Different quality, however. If you buy from a reputable store, like Music Direct as an example, the odds of getting a fake are extremely slim.
If you're talking about the microfiber brush, it is very effective for machine cleaning. I have three that I use with a VPI 16.5: one for enzyme-based fluid, one for non-enzyme fluid, and the third for distilled water. Their handles are tagged with color tape; helps to see which is which, but I digress. The drawback of microfiber is static. During the course of machine cleaning, the brush-driven static is neutralized by the fluid. Of course, there's another chance to pick up static via the felt on the suction tube. I'm mentioning the latter for general benefit. So the bottom line is, if you're thinking of the microfiber brush, you may want to reconsider.

Okay Amazon has the Hunt E.D.A. Mark 6 being sold from Audiolab and only a couple of reviews mention problems so I'm sure it will be fine.

 

[analogsurviver]

+1 for the Hunt EDA - and everything about getting one.

 

[yeahx]

  +1 for the Hunt EDA - and everything about getting one.

Thats good, went ahead and put in an order on Amazon. If I have any reason to think they sent me a crap one it's going back.

 

[analogsurviver]

 
Thats good, went ahead and put in an order on Amazon. If I have any reason to think they sent me a crap one it's going back.

Well, I guess that is the safest way ...

 

[yeahx]

  Well, I guess that is the safest way ...

Usually pretty easy to do returns I have heard, but mainly did it because of free shipping. Just had to add $10 more for 100 razors to shave for the next year brought it to enough to get shipping free.

 

[analogsurviver]

 
Usually pretty easy to do returns I have heard, but mainly did it because of free shipping.

I barely get to use the Amazon - most of the time, they either do not ship to my country at all, in case of free shipping to most other locations, there is a shipping fee ; most others are accompanied by shipping fee that is a definite deal breaker. 
 
Returns - R Y serious !?!
 
But I do have Philips SHP-9500 headphones perched on my head as I type this - and this is my #1 reasonable purchase from Amazon !

 

[]eep]

I don't gather a lot of dust since I use Permostat on almost all my records. Just got me 2 big refills for another 200 records. I've had the same carbon microfiber brush since 1988 so I've got no idea where to get what...

A dry atmosphere helps create a lot of static, as do synthetic floors. I think an air moisturizer, like grand-piano owners have, wouldn't be bad either. Very often our (western) interiors are way to dry, like 10-40% (especially in winter) where 60% is better for our airways (mucosa). Sometimes in winter when I walk on socks I get attacked by the arm with a fierce static tazer discharge.

 

[pedalhead]

Hi guys.  I've (perhaps inevitably!) gravitated here from the vintage amplifiers thread as I'm now firmly in the vinyl-curious camp.  I had a turntable as a teenager in the '80s (still got my LPs), and also had a dabble in 2009 with a second hand Rega P3 (for headphone use only). I pretty quickly re-sold the P3 as, compared to my mid-fi digital headphone rig, it sounded poor...closed-in, lacking in dynamics and generally just very low-fi. Admittedly, I didn't have it on a very solid platform, and I understand Rega's are vibration amplifiers more than most.
 
I'm thinking of revisiting vinyl again now as I have a the budget for something a little better...something like a Gyrodec SE for example (open to suggestions around this level).  Again, this will mostly be just for headphone listening for now, but also with speakers when we move to a bigger place. I'm hoping to save a few quid up front & use my vintage Luxman R1120's on-board phono stage with a mind to upgrading later.
 
I guess I'm concerned about the same thing as @DarthFader from a couple of pages back...is this a decent enough turntable price point to provide a good headphone listening experience that won't have me running back to my digital setup?  Obviously I need to listen for myself, but based on my previous experience with the P3 I'm naturally concerned about this being a big waste of ££££.  Of course, I'm not expecting a similar level of resolution from a turntable at this level, but I do want a lively, open, wide, natural vinyl sound.  I'd appreciate any further thoughts on this topic from the helpful people in this thread.  Cheers!

 

[Skylab]

I'm not specifically familiar with the Gyrodec, but in looking at it, it seems like a very nice TT, and for $2,500, it had better sound fantastic! $2,500 can buy you a vinyl playback system that you might well decide sounds significantly better than whatever digital playback system you are using.

 

[pedalhead]

I'm not specifically familiar with the Gyrodec, but in looking at it, it seems like a very nice TT, and for $2,500, it had better sound fantastic! $2,500 can buy you a vinyl playback system that you might well decide sounds significantly better than whatever digital playback system you are using.

 
Music to my ears

.  Cheers, sounds promising! There's a vinyl demo day at my local audio shop this weekend...hmmm, and it's father's day on Sunday.  May be able to swing a visit 

.

 

[JamieMcC]

Found this on another forum some neat images and video taken with a electron microscope.
 
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/microscopic_footage_of_a_needle_moving_across_the_grooves_of_a_record
 

 

[CH23]

  Found this on another forum some neat images and video taken with a electron microscope.
 
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/microscopic_footage_of_a_needle_moving_across_the_grooves_of_a_record
 

 
really nice vid, lot of work for the guy who did this.
 
shame it can't be done with an actual spinning record, because i believe the movement will be different, albeit only slightly.

 

[analogsurviver]

   
really nice vid, lot of work for the guy who did this.
 
shame it can't be done with an actual spinning record, because i believe the movement will be different, albeit only slightly.

No way you would want to do Scanning Electron Microscope filming of actual spinning record.
 
1. You would have to have SEM chamber the size of the turntable. Even if we reduce to the bare minimum size ( say Sony Flamingo or Technics SL jacket size TTs ),
     this calls for a GIANT SEM chamber - which would be accompanied by a galling bill
2. You would have to have data acquisition system in real time - not "frame by frame, so and so micrometers at a time" as in this vid. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
3. You would have to use VERY SLOW SPEED PLAYBACK - some 1000 and more times slower than real speed - in order to be able to see anything.. $$$$$$$$$$
 
The SEM featured in this vid and other equipment used can easily exceed 100 K $.
 
Soooooooo......

 

[Anavel0]

No way you would want to do Scanning Electron Microscope filming of actual spinning record.

1. You would have to have SEM chamber the size of the turntable. Even if we reduce to the bare minimum size ( say Sony Flamingo or Technics SL jacket size TTs ),
     this calls for a GIANT SEM chamber - which would be accompanied by a galling bill
2. You would have to have data acquisition system in real time - not "frame by frame, so and so micrometers at a time" as in this vid. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
3. You would have to use VERY SLOW SPEED PLAYBACK - some 1000 and more times slower than real speed - in order to be able to see anything.. $$$$$$$$$$

The SEM featured in this vid and other equipment used can easily exceed 100 K $.

Soooooooo......

Don't ruin our dreams!

 

[analogsurviver]

Don't ruin our dreams!

Ahem... - I used to work at our only microelectronics plant, some 30 years ago; and unfortunately DO know relative price$ and equipment limitation$.
 
It is a part of being analogsurviver - I was considering - more than 10 years ago - something like AnalogDieHard; but I see nothing particularly attractive in dying...
 
Being realistic is a part of the analog diet - you can easily go past 1M mark ( there is a TT at cool 500.000 EUR; you need cart say 35 K , you "need" some crazy phono preamp at roughly the same kind of money as cart, etc - you get the idea....). You add a SEM capable housing the whole thing ( say couple of M$ ) , acquisition system capable of recording the video in real time ( couple XYZ.000 $ ), etc, etc
 
- and then you wake up, go to job and hope to get promoted in a year or so that you can afford that real world better cartridge before your present one gets used beyond safe level to records.
 
I find - in a cold blooded realistic view - statement that 2K5 $ for "turntable" ( cartridge, arm, table, preamp ) is going to bury anything digital to be, mildly put, misleading. OK, IF it is 2K5 for EACH component, then I would tend - with reservations - to agree. What we analog audiohiles tend to forget that ADDING say 2K5 to our analog rig ( say a new cart ) does not make the whole analog rig to cost only those "measly" 2K5 - over time, it can accumulate into really silly money.
 
I will try to present a truly good setup, assembled together for peanut$ - that can compete, up to a certain point, with "anything". But please understand up to a certain point - when you really want truly excellent performance, there is no other option than to open up the wallet.
 
At around say 1K$ for the signal that can drive the speaker or headphone amplifier - stick to the digital, UNLESS you already own big analog record library.