Now I've done it -- getting a turntable

james n posted:

Bart posted:

UPDATE:  My always-helpful dealer happened to have a customer return RP8/Apheta 2/Aria with just a few hours on it. 

Nice. I'd recommend getting this book too. It's an excellent read whilst you are listening to your new purchase 

Very good recommendation James. An excellent book.

Don't know how much of a gambler you are, but on-line goodwill (auctions) has an old rega p3 right now.looks complete and very much like the one i part traded for lp 12 many moons ago. Not much to go wrong with them (even has a goldring cart).

with a good cart and quality phono, the rp8 can be on the level of the nd555.  It outperforms my nds/ 555 dr.

Very good choice Bart.    The bad news:  you will certainly buy more and more lps, as said Richard.

Richard Dane posted:

Bart posted:

UPDATE:  My always-helpful dealer happened to have a customer return RP8/Apheta 2/Aria with just a few hours on it. (The customer decided vinyl really was folly for him.)  Price is less than new Planar 6/ Ania / Aria, so I'll mix my metaphors and roll the dice and head down the rabbit hole.

Wow.  That's a lovely vinyl front end.  Well done.

I do have some bad news for you though.

If the bug really bites (and it likely will, although the previous owner shows that it doesn't for everyone), you'll be spending more money buying lots more vinyl...

Ideal result Bart. That will sound wonderful. As for the LP buying; bad news for the wallet perhaps, but excellent news for some unexpectedly great musical experiences. Enjoy it. 

Bart - I’ve heard the RP8 several times - it’s a great TT. 

Regards,

Lindsay

Bart posted:

UPDATE:  My always-helpful dealer happened to have a customer return RP8/Apheta 2/Aria with just a few hours on it. (The customer decided vinyl really was folly for him.)  Price is less than new Planar 6/ Ania / Aria, so I'll mix my metaphors and roll the dice and head down the rabbit hole.

Great deal. Enjoy. As FR says a good TT can outperform streamers.

Phil

Your RP8 may not suffer to the same extent as suspended designs like the LP12 - but I had my LP12 on the rack (room has wooden floorboards over beams) and it suffered from disturbance with the slightest footfall.  The wall shelf not only cured the "jumping" but also brought another level of clarity that had been muddied by having the TT atop a heavy rack.

james n posted:

Bart posted:

UPDATE:  My always-helpful dealer happened to have a customer return RP8/Apheta 2/Aria with just a few hours on it. 

Nice. I'd recommend getting this book too. It's an excellent read whilst you are listening to your new purchase 

Thanks James!  It's still sold new and I've ordered a copy. I can read it while waiting for delivery

i hope Bart you will give us a report on your sound impressions.  Enjoy!

For 30 LPs a Rega 3 is really good, plus you will have to add a Stage Line or some form of phono stage. A Rega 3 plus cartridge plus phono stage is going to be around £800- £100. That's a lot for 30 LPs 

I have an RP3- P24 and it is very good . My advice is to get a Rega 3 then if you find you are listening to more vinyl then up-grade. I have done just that, found I was buying LPs in preference to CDs (I have a CDX2) and that sometime the little Rega could hold a candle to it.

In the process of switching to a Michell and cannibalising the arm from the Rega  , the upgrade path isn't exclusive to Naim ..

I love my ClearAudio Concept MC, as plug and play as a TT can get. 

I have an Origin Live Resolution Mk 4 with Conqueror tonearm and Ortofon Cadenza Bronze Cartridge. It sits under Townshend Pods (absolutely essential) and it is better than my ND555 which in turn is a significant upgrade on the NDS. 

That doesn’t surprise me Gerry, as I remarked at the ND555 roadshow ‘the only issue with it is that it’s not a turntable’..

Bart posted:

UPDATE:  My always-helpful dealer happened to have a customer return RP8/Apheta 2/Aria with just a few hours on it. (The customer decided vinyl really was folly for him.)  Price is less than new Planar 6/ Ania / Aria, so I'll mix my metaphors and roll the dice and head down the rabbit hole.

That should sound good. I recently upgraded my original Michell Syncro turntable to a RB808, Dynavector 20X2L and pre-owned Aria and the upgrade exceeded my expectations, sounds terrific.

Fueller posted:

That doesn’t surprise me Gerry, as I remarked at the ND555 roadshow ‘the only issue with it is that it’s not a turntable’..

It doesn’t surprise me. They don’t want to show that a 3k turntable/cart combo can be at the level of an 22k streamer.   It would put disorder.

There is a lovely Synchrodec on sale at the moment for £750, I don't have the time to drive to Essex to buy it so have ordered a Technodec instead,

The Synchrodec  is a deck to drool over. I am quite sure Pro_ject have a Synchrodec somewhere as a model to copy, re-copy and keep copying. I remember standing looking at a Synchrodec in Uxbridge Audio thirty years ago, the first time I fell in lust with a piece of HiFI 

I tried the £240 ProJect Essentials III at home yesterday. I'm really impressed by the performance at this price level. It doesn't provide the musical meaning that an LP12 can but its still plenty of fun. Partnered with some forgiving (i.e. not too revealing) speakers, I was enjoying the music no problem. It also sounds more speed stable and without the overly warm cudly sound of my mid-80s deck. It's character is much closer to the Klimax deck than the old deck. Obviously, the ProJect lacks refinement compared to etiher LP12, hence the need to change speaker model. 

As someone already suggested, if you enjoy these x30 old LPs then, as a 555 owner, I can see you shelling out a couple of grand on a Simplex 2, or similar, so wasting too much now on a budget deck seems pointless, unless you have someone in mind who you can pass the deck onto. However, I do wonder if spending a little more to start with is worthwhile, so I'd like to hear the Carbon Black or RP2 next and see if either can provide the same fun but with some more sonic refinement and solidity/weight to the construction. Personally, I'd like to buy British, so hoping the RP2 is good enough. If not, then I might be checking out the RP3 after all.

james n posted:

Bart posted:

UPDATE:  My always-helpful dealer happened to have a customer return RP8/Apheta 2/Aria with just a few hours on it. 

Nice. I'd recommend getting this book too. It's an excellent read whilst you are listening to your new purchase 

Our copy arrived and my wife's nearly read all of it today already!  It's the engineer in her...piqued her curiosity