re: Great "Bang For The Buck" Audiophile Gear

What's a good place to find decent cartridge for an old Technics, standard mount turntable? Seems all I can find are p-mount ones. Should I just get a new turntable? The Technics works great, just not finding much of a selection on cartridges. I have an old Pioneer, but the auto feed and return doesn't work and I can't find anyone that can repair it(admmittedly I've only taken it to two guys.)

The Technics currently has a Audio Technica I bought off Amazon for like $30. It's okay for a non-audiophile like me, but I'd like to upgrade for say around $100. Running it through a Pioneer SX650 and ADvent Loudspeakers if that makes a different. Turntable is a Technics SL-QD35.


Sorry, turntable is p-mount, not standard mount. All I can find is standard mount. Got my terms mixed up.

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river_man

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It finally came in...Awesome!!...Congrats!


What are your first impressions moving over from the Emotiva?


If you are anything like me, you will begin to relisten to your entire music library from the beginning all over again looking for subtle differences in detail.

Enjoy it man!

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What are your first impressions moving over from the Emotiva?

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Way more detail, even this early in the game. The vocals are unreal.
And yes, I will def go back and re-listen to my collection.

I may try to get up with you Mon or Tues if you're looking ok on your end...

Great thread idea.

I'll be keeping up with it

For a huge jump up in record playing performance, I can strongly recommend the Sumiko Blue Point Special EVO III. I had one mounted on an old Pioneer PL-41 (the one that little fricker from Tulane Law stole from me--see previous posts), and can say first hand, that this is a great cart for the money.




Most big on line retailers will also give you 10-20% off if you just ask them. The retail on this is $549, but you should be able to get it with shipping for around $480 or so.

Link to Sumiko Blue Point Special EVO III

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The Spleen

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Grado makes an entire line of P-mount carts from $75 to $275. They aren't bad carts.

If I remember correctly, Stanton also makes a bunch of P-mounts as well. Stanton has been around a very long time.

For those not wanting to play with tubes, here is another recommendation...the Rotel RA-1592 integrated amplifier. It boasts 200wpc, an on board DAC for computer input, numerous digital inputs, numerous analog inputs, balanced and coaxial analog inputs, sub woofer ins and outs, and even has a phono stage.

Here it is...




And a LINK to the page

It retails for $2500--not too bad for all the stuff packed into this box.

I use Rotel for my home theater and outdoor system--it is built well and has a nice sound.

And another integrated amp...the Schiit Ragnarok...$1699

60 wpc into 8 ohms and also acts as a killer headphone amp. Has balanced and coax inputs.

Schiit Audio

Outlaw Audio was started years ago by a few guys that left McIntosh Labs. I don't know about their sound as I have never heard any of their gear. I haven't heard anything about Outlaw in a while.

As I stated in the first post, I will recommend equipment that can be found in systems from $2k to $8k. The following is on the upper end of the scale, but if you can swing it, they are great pieces.

At the audio show in Orange County last week, Audio Alchemy walked away with a few awards for value and sound.

They now make a pre amp, stereo power amp, mono block power amps, seperate power supplies (optional), a phono pre amp, and a music server.

A stereo amp and pre amp will set you back $4k...but it has power in spades, sounds great, and is an elegant piece of gear.

Here is the link to Audio Alchemy

Pre amp...$2000



Power amp...$2000



Optional power supply...$595



Phono pre amp...$1795



Music streamer...$1795