Turntable choices, comments please.

[johnniebaby]

I am looking at changing my TT, and have been considering the following:- Rega P9 + RB1000, Nottingham Hyperspace/ OL1 or VPI Aries Scout/JMW9. Any comments, thoughts, experiences? JB.

[Gromit]

JB - if you're considering the Hyper with an OL1 you'd probably be better off with the new Ace Spacedeck (it has the Hyper's better oil-pumping bearing) with Heavy Kit (which the Hyper has as standard) plus the Spacearm. This would probably be a similar outlay to the Hyper/OL. The Spacearm leaves the OL arm for dead in my experience.

As to the others - I listened to a Scout when I bought my NAS. A very nice turntable but was a little too 'hifi' for me. The P9 is one I'd love to try - bit of a dark horse I reckon.

[griffo104]

For me, from that list, the VPI - easy choice but then having seen your problems with the Hadcock you might not enjoy settting the arm up in it . I've yet to hear a VPI deck I didn't like, musical and not a lot of messy to do once you have the arm set up. Only problem with the VPI decks is they seem to change distributor on a fairly regular basis in this country.

For me the Rega hotspot is the P7 and not sure if the P9 is really worth that much more, the P7 is a very good deck.

Not heard the Hyperspace but the Spacedeck is a very good deck so would expect a similar sound from the Hyperspace but don't waste your money on the OL1, the Technoarm trounces it and is £200 cheaper.

Silly question here but what waswrong with the Clearaudio you had ???????

[dudywoxer]

you could not have picked three more varying presentations, all IMHO and all that

The Rega has a tighter faster sound, and real impact on drum strikes etc, with a 'smaller' soundstage than the other two. It also seems to be the least fussy about set up, and once done thats it basically.

The NA deck was a bit darker sounding, very fluid though, again, seemed to be fairly easy to set up, and as involving as the Rega, just in a different, slightly more laid back way. I'm not sure what if any influence the arm would have, as I have heard it with a techno and your hadcock, and preferred it with the hadcock. In both cases it was with a DV 20. Something about the NA and the Hadcock just seemed very right.

I spent a while listening to both, and also to the Rega P7, and if I settle on a Rega deck it will probably be the 7, rather than the 9. I could very happily live with the NA or the Rega, they are justdifferent in their presentation.

Can not comment on the VPI, when I have sorted out one or two other things then I will be back looking at decks, and want to try the acoustic signature decks as well.

[griffo104]

I think some decks prefer uni-pivots, the NA ones seem to be on that list, most of the NA decks I've heard have had either Hadcocks or the NA uni-pivot.

However, I stand by by comment regarding the OL1 vs the Technoarm

How about the baby Kuzma and Stogi S tonearm ? Lovely sounding deck, well made and once set up that's your lot. I think MAX just outside Kidderminster (Belbroughton) have these as there is always one on his offers page on the website, would cost around £1300 to £1500 for the deck/arm and there's not a lot to go wrong with it.

[Gromit]

griffo104 wrote:

don't waste your money on the OL1, the Technoarm trounces it and is £200 cheaper.

Griffo - The OL1 is simply the OL-badged RB250. Did you mean the OL Silver? ie the 600 quid one?

On a NAS deck the Spacearm really is the best choice at the price - the deck really seems to love unipivots and the improvement wrought over the OL arm I had (it had the weight mod/full wiring mod) was like night and day. Of course the Tecno's a marvellous piece of kit but on a NAS I'd go with Tom's own arm - unless one could stretch to a Morch

[johnniebaby]

griffo104 wrote:

For me, from that list, the VPI - easy choice but then having seen your problems with the Hadcock you might not enjoy settting the arm up in it . I've yet to hear a VPI deck I didn't like, musical and not a lot of messy to do once you have the arm set up. Only problem with the VPI decks is they seem to change distributor on a fairly regular basis in this country.

For me the Rega hotspot is the P7 and not sure if the P9 is really worth that much more, the P7 is a very good deck.

Not heard the Hyperspace but the Spacedeck is a very good deck so would expect a similar sound from the Hyperspace but don't waste your money on the OL1, the Technoarm trounces it and is £200 cheaper.

Silly question here but what waswrong with the Clearaudio you had ???????

Absolutely nothing Simon, I sold it and immediately regretted it. JB.

[griffo104]

Gromit wrote:

griffo104 wrote:

don't waste your money on the OL1, the Technoarm trounces it and is £200 cheaper.

Griffo - The OL1 is simply the OL-badged RB250. Did you mean the OL Silver? ie the 600 quid one?

On a NAS deck the Spacearm really is the best choice at the price - the deck really seems to love unipivots and the improvement wrought over the OL arm I had (it had the weight mod/full wiring mod) was like night and day. Of course the Tecno's a marvellous piece of kit but on a NAS I'd go with Tom's own arm - unless one could stretch to a Morch

Yes, Gromit, I did mean the OL Silver, haven't woken up yet this morning :dude:. I agree with you, given the choice of arm on the NA I'd also go with the manufacturer's own one as well.

The Moerch is an object of desire for me and was on my list but I keep struggling to save the money , too many things keep taking my money away from me, this weekend my car will be doing it's bit

[johnniebaby]

Gromit wrote:

JB - if you're considering the Hyper with an OL1 you'd probably be better off with the new Ace Spacedeck (it has the Hyper's better oil-pumping bearing) with Heavy Kit (which the Hyper has as standard) plus the Spacearm. This would probably be a similar outlay to the Hyper/OL. The Spacearm leaves the OL arm for dead in my experience.

As to the others - I listened to a Scout when I bought my NAS. A very nice turntable but was a little too 'hifi' for me. The P9 is one I'd love to try - bit of a dark horse I reckon.

Hi Gromit, these are is a s/h TT's I am looking at. Griffo, I am going into Brum this AM, may make a detour via Belbroughton on the way back JB.

[Gromit]

griffo104 wrote:

The Moerch is an object of desire for me and was on my list but I keep struggling to save the money , too many things keep taking my money away from me,

Totally agree - I've always thought the Moerch arms to be things of great beauty. I really must get to hear one some time. Or perhaps that's not such a good idea??

As to the OL arm - yup, I've no doubt the Silver is very good but for the money it just doesn't seem to offer much. The finish isn't particularly impressive (imho) plus why buy one when as you rightly say the Tecno offers so much for less? A friend of mine uses a Tecno on a (shock horror!) LP12 which sounds just fabulous - blew the Akito into next week. A typical Michell product - beautifully engineered and executed. And it works bloody well.

[Gromit]

johnniebaby wrote:

Hi Gromit, these are is a s/h TT's I am looking at.

Gotcha

If you did plump for the Hyper it'll be worth noting that the OL arm will be holding the TT back by some margin.

I rather like the idea of the P9 myself - simple, unfussy and rather classy imho.

[griffo104]

johnniebaby wrote:

Gromit wrote:

JB - if you're considering the Hyper with an OL1 you'd probably be better off with the new Ace Spacedeck (it has the Hyper's better oil-pumping bearing) with Heavy Kit (which the Hyper has as standard) plus the Spacearm. This would probably be a similar outlay to the Hyper/OL. The Spacearm leaves the OL arm for dead in my experience.

As to the others - I listened to a Scout when I bought my NAS. A very nice turntable but was a little too 'hifi' for me. The P9 is one I'd love to try - bit of a dark horse I reckon.

Hi Gromit, these are is a s/h TT's I am looking at. Griffo, I am going into Brum this AM, may make a detour via Belbroughton on the way back JB.

Have fun, I bought my first TT from them when they were over in Kidderminster and John is an excellent person to deal with. They have Regas there as well and all kinds of turntables.

[griffo104]

Gromit wrote:

griffo104 wrote:

The Moerch is an object of desire for me and was on my list but I keep struggling to save the money , too many things keep taking my money away from me,

Totally agree - I've always thought the Moerch arms to be things of great beauty. I really must get to hear one some time. Or perhaps that's not such a good idea??

As to the OL arm - yup, I've no doubt the Silver is very good but for the money it just doesn't seem to offer much. The finish isn't particularly impressive (imho) plus why buy one when as you rightly say the Tecno offers so much for less? A friend of mine uses a Tecno on a (shock horror!) LP12 which sounds just fabulous - blew the Akito into next week. A typical Michell product - beautifully engineered and executed. And it works bloody well.

Being a previous owner of an Akito I'm not surprised by that, the Techno is one of the great bargains out there.

Rather worryingly I was chatting to someone a while ago who has the Dorian on an Orbe (like me) and he'd just got a Moerch - match made in heaven by all accounts. A part of me hated him (in a good way of course)

[Papa Lazarou]

Also consider the rather excellent Kuzma Stabi S. ;)

[Gromit]

griffo104 wrote:

Rather worryingly I was chatting to someone a while ago who has the Dorian on an Orbe (like me) and he'd just got a Moerch - match made in heaven by all accounts. A part of me hated him (in a good way of course)

La la la....I'm not listening...la la...

[griffo104]

Papa Lazarou wrote:

Also consider the rather excellent Kuzma Stabi S. ;)

Already got it covered for him and his trip to Belbroughton.

[stickman]

The Kuzma disappeared off Max's website about a week ago, I was considering it as my first decent turntable.

I've just bought the Vpi that had been on the Audio Destination website but it hasn't arrived yet so I can't give you my thoughts.

There is a private 2nd hand one on ebay at the moment as there are P9 and Hyper.

There's a Clearaudio Satisfy/Solution that's been on HiFiForsale/PinkFish/ZeroGain for a while at what appears a bargain £775.

The Acoustic Signature Challenger has a lot of positive press, but it's £1300 without arm and I haven't seen any 2nd hand or ex-demo on my searches.

[JonR]

On the subject of NA decks, another one to consider is the Interspace Junior, which lookslike a very neat package for the price and includes an Interspace Arm (also a uni-pivot) as standard. Noteworthy Audio sell and highly recommend this deckand when I last visited I recall them telling me that they rate it even higher than the Rega P7, which they also sell.

Gromit wrote:

As to the OL arm - yup, I've no doubt the Silver is very good but for the money it just doesn't seem to offer much. The finish isn't particularly impressive (imho) plus why buy one when as you rightly say the Tecno offers so much for less? A friend of mine uses a Tecno on a (shock horror!) LP12 which sounds just fabulous - blew the Akito into next week. A typical Michell product - beautifully engineered and executed. And it works bloody well.

Hmmm........really?

Interesting......

[Leonard Smalls]

stickman wrote:

There's a Clearaudio Satisfy/Solution that's been on HiFiForsale/PinkFish/ZeroGain for a while at what appears a bargain £775.

Otherwise, the Kuzma (if you can find one!), or there's a Clearaudio Champion Level 2 turntable, clear perspex,with Unify 9" tonearm direct wired with Sixstream cable - box, manual - as new condition at Audio Consultants for £1800

[Gromit]

JonR wrote:

Hmmm........really?

Interesting......

Does indeed Jon - despite the cries of 'heretic' from the cognescenti ;)

Seriously, it seems to be a good match - last time I heard it was sounding very nice indeed.