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May 28, 2012 - 7:40pm
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Suggestions for Turntable and CD Player
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Turntable: Sota Moonbeam II $749 with a Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge $279. Talk to someone at Needle Doctor to set you up.
CD player: Hard to go wrong with the Oppo, especially if you want to try HDCDs, SACDs and DVD-As, and it is a heck of a DVD and BR player.
I spent $6000 on the Ayre C5xe 6 years ago, and had never heard anything that could touch it for CD/SACD playback UNTIL the OPPO BDP-95 came along.
The BDP-95 sounds better to me, and is only $1000. As far as I am concerned, it is a revolutionary product that makes every player from $800 to $8000 obsolete and irrelevant. It is the best-sounding CD/SACD player I have ever personally heard, at ANY price. I recommend that anyone who is considering ANY player buy this one if they can; it is an amazingly good machine that would still be a bargain at $3000.
It is so good that I wouldn't be surprised if they raise the price soon; get it cheap while you can. Oh...it plays Bluray and DVD too...lol.
For a turntable, I would suggest the Music Hall MMF-2.2 turntable with a Benz Micro MC Silver cartridge and Musical Fidelity V-LPS phono stage. I have this setup and it is wonderful. It should run you around $1000 total.
Rega P3 with an Elys II cartridge. I got it just before it was discontinued and replaced with the new RP3. All the reviews say that the RP3 is a step forward from the P3, It would be a touch over your budget at $1100 with an Elys II or the guys at Needledoctor may be able to recommend an alternative cartridge. I hear the Ortofon 2M Blue is great for the money.
Another alternative is the Pro-Ject Xpression III with an upgraded cartridge, With that same Ortofon 2M Blue, you should be at around $900. The only irritating thing about the Pro-Ject is the anti-skating system is a pain in the butt to set up.
After spending months shopping, those were the two tables I settled on. I loved the Clearaudio Concept and thought it was superior to any of these units but it is $1500 and was way over my budget. I was going to get the Xpression III and the guys at Needledoctor talked me into the Rega. I have had it for 9 months and have not regretted it for a second.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I've researched each component mentioned and learnt a good amount in the process : )
Here's the set up I'm going with and why:
CD Player/DAC
The Oppo BDP-95 has been amazingly reviewed, however after some research I find I prefer to build my system with separate specialized components (i.e. separate DAC, CD player acting as transport, etc...) for better build quality, minimize interferece from other components, and to more easily switch between DACs. I also would miss the optical input that the Oppo lacks (just about the only weakness I found about it).
So I looked around to see why the Oppo was awesome for sound compared to other well built source systems, and found its multiple SABRE Reference DACs made by ESS (specifically the top of the line ES9018 version) were the key. Just about every product I saw with the ES9018 SABRE was rated very well.
I looked around for a very well built DAC (Class A) with the ES9018 SABRE for sub $1000 and found the Audio Lab M-DAC (not to be confused with the well built Audio Lab 8200DQ, which I was informed is surprisingly inferior to the M-DAC, though still an impressive SABRE based DAC). It's selling for $899 here in Canada.
Now for the CD transport I'm still searching to see what's best, I'm budgeting another $500-600 for it. Overall the CD + DAC combo will likely be around $1,500 instead of my original $1,000, but it's a price I'm willing to pay for separate high quality components.
P.S. I'm selling the Little Dot MK IV SE tube amp and cancelled my order for the Beyerdynamic DT 990, instead I'm considering the Woo Audio WA2 + Sennheiser HD800, just need to find a place to try them out first.
Turntable
This was a tough one. I looked into the Music Hall, the Regas, and the Clearence Audio (which looks fantastic). After trying a couple of TTs I realized there is considerable room to upgrade into the $1000-2000 price range, after which point the law of diminishing returns kicks into high gear.
So I've decided to wait a few more months, save more, and get one of the following turntables:
Pioneer Exclusive P10 (http://audio-database.com/PIONEER-EXCLUSIVE/player/p10-e.html) <-- Very heavy aluminum direct drive turntable, considered by many to be the second best turntable made by Pioneer (after the P3) and one of the best mass produced turntables in the world. I have tried it at a friend's house and really enjoyed it
Nakamichi TX-1000 (http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue33/tx1000.htm) <-- This is rare, so it would depend on if a) I find one and b) it's cheap enough
I'm still considering different cartridges, but I'll likely save up to get a moving coil one with a solid pre-amp.
So yeah, I realize the new system I'm building is considerably more pricey than I originally intended, so I'll be building it 1 or 2 components at a time throughout 2012 instead of buying it all in one go. Considering the quality of these components I'm convinced it's the right approach.
Thanks again for your help guys! Let me know if you have any comments on the above.