The blue is MASSIVLEY better than the red. No matter how I set up the red, I couldn’t get rid of IGD. And once you notice it, you cant unnotice it.
Separate phono stages are good. Pro ject make some affordable ones. Graham slee is another mob that make good entry level phono stages.
Records are beautiful. Hifi is wonderful. Music is magic.
What a great looking area for spinning Vinyl !
Cheers on the advice.
Going to definitely go for the Ortofon Blue, particularly since the Stylus fits in the same Cartridge as the Red (therefore, no need to purchase the whole Cartridge).
So easy to switch them out also.
No alignment necessary, though I’ll probably be ■■■■ about it and check it again, along with the tracking force.
Have my Technics 1200’s that i purchased in 1989 from the Mix Factory.
Had to go on waiting list and cost $900 each throw in a phonic 7 channel mixer and off you go…
still have them today and they get serviced every 3 years no matter how much they are used …
Have a NAD …thats noise and distortion amp still going strong…
Need new monitors now as ive worn the old ones out and much rather have monitors then am currently running it through my BOSe sytem…
learnt to mix from the guy who won the DMC mixing champs in 1988 and my good mate won it the following year
I kept my vinyl through the CD surge and bought a lot off friends and garage sales when everyone was going CD.
For value you really need first pressings for the purists, like Albert records for AC/DC.
I bought a Rega Turntable, very simple in construction, but it’s all about the weight and setup, sometimes simple is better.
One of my best scores was getting all The Cars vinyls for $5 and they look like they have hardly been played, first pressings as well!
Still trying to configure my Yamaha amp to play well, it has Phono but feel like like I have to really crank the volume to get the sound
I went browsing at a Betta store a few years ago. The salesman asked what I had. A Rotel R820B. He gave up instantly and admitted that I’d need to spend thousands to reach that standard (which I have had gathering dust for 20 years).
About 90% of the work was putting appropriate shelving in for all the parts. Get a chippy to do that bit for you then wire everything up yourself.
Hey blnt - I use a JLTI phono stage in my setup. It made a very big difference in my sound but allot will depend on how much you want to spend and how you want it to sound. I’m not good with words but it made the music ‘bigger’ and with more ‘space’…almost like it was remastered. I think they can be pretty expensive these days but occasionally come up second hand and I would recommend them.
We had a resurgence of hi fi questions at the shop recently and I always recommend people to aim at investing more then they initial would like to. Especially if they intend to build a collection/or build on what they have…at any given day a wholesale copy of a new record will be around $25-$40. Then we chuck our $10-15 bucks on it and the whole process starts to become pretty expensive for someone keen on buying a stack of records. Buy 15 records or spend it on a beautiful phono stage…
Also, If anyone wants to sell their collection or get an honest appraisal hit me up!
Would like to know the answer to that also. The old Yamaha HTR5960 I bought recently has phono input, but I couldn’t easily resolve a hum from (I assume) bad earth when I connected the ATLP120. The turntable has optional built in preamp, so the easy thing to do was just switch to that and run it through the CD input. I will try to resolve the the grounding problem so that I can properly compare, but should I assume that the amp has a better phono preamp than the turntable, and is a mid-range dedicated preamp likely to surpass either or both of them?
Not easy questions one could spend hours online trying to find the answers to.
I guess in my instance, the question is at what price point of PreAmp will make an appreciable improvement in listening experience (& changing sound options) to what is already in my Onkyo Receiver.
Will the Pro-ject entry level PreAmp ($130-ish) be the same as what I have ?
On the other end, is a $1000 PreAmp over kill for an $800 TT (I don’t plan on upgrading anytime soon) ?
Off to the Audiophile forums I go…
Is sound quality overrated? It’s not like a concert often reaches the heights of the recording. I have a technics 1200 running out of an old Sony with pre-amp. I find the lyrics, melody and bass lines are distinct and enjoy the good songs more than the bad ones.
Cheers for the suggestion.
Are they owned by Oppo ?
Hard to find them online (nothing on EBay or Amazon).
The cheapest I could see was a $1500 unit on a very unprofessional looking web page.
That is certainly out of my budget.
I’d be comfortable spending a minimum of $300, upwards towards 4 figures, but I’d have to be blown away by the improvements to shell out that much.
Wonder if a local Specialist Audio Retailer would let me borrow one for a weekend 
I notice the Graham Slee suggested by another poster can be had for 340-ish.
The Rotel R820B is still a pretty decent amp. I fixed my mates one just before Xmas.
The hi-fi nerds will tell you that the turntable’s pre-amp is far and away the worst, some even manually remove it from the circuit board so it doesn’t take any load (I have that turntable and it was suggested many a time but I just used a $50 Behringer pre-amp instead). I assume the dedicated one is best but I actually don’t know how that would fare vs. the one embedded in a good amp. I’d say the amp’s one is pretty good too
i have one of these bad boys supplanting my turntables in-built one and it goes alright
https://www.amazon.com.au/Cord-Phono-Stage-Black-1/dp/B077FNKMQ3
that being said, my place is quite small so i’m never really far enough away from speakers to distinguish less-than-obvious changes in sound quality. also my speakers aren’t great (defunct brand, 20+ years old) so that can’t help.
And then we can get into the topic of good vinyl presses versus ■■■■■■ ones.
Yep. I’m using my RB-980 BX & RC-980 BX pre for Vinyl ATM.
It’s their 25th anniversary this year, & I got offered $1000 for the pair just last week. Nope.
If you want to go full nerd on vinyl presses and a whole lot more on audio matters try forums.stevehoffman.tv
The depth of knowledge on that site is humbling.
Yeah, I don’t post on there but read it often. It goes really deep and has been helpful many times when seeking out best presses.
I was looking to buy a copy of Rubber Soul on CD and didn’t know whether to buy a stereo or mono version. Over to the Steve Hoffman site. Two hours later I blinked and came up for air. Amazing site…
Yes! That’s what I used it for recently, to get a perspective on which Beatles records are better in mono, and which Japanese presses are worth looking for (I live in Osaka).
