classicrock wrote:

Just turned 62 yrs old. My musical tastes are pretty much stuck in the 60's and 70's (Cream,Santana,Beatles,Rolling Stones, etc.) I have just had my receiver (Pioneer SX 1280) and my speakers (ESS AMT Rock Monitors) completely refurbished and am enjoying listening to CD's at a volume which makes my wife want to "cut up the curtains with scissors". The sound is fantastic. It is time to get out my album collection - about 500 vinyl records which have been in storage for 30 years in a temperature controlled room.

I am looking for advice on purchasing a quality turntable/tonearm/cartridge to fire up my vinyl collection. Hoping I can buy a quality system for $2500 to $3000. Would appreciate suggestions. Classicrock

classicrock wrote:

Just turned 62 yrs old. My musical tastes are pretty much stuck in the 60's and 70's (Cream,Santana,Beatles,Rolling Stones, etc.) I have just had my receiver (Pioneer SX 1280) and my speakers (ESS AMT Rock Monitors) completely refurbished and am enjoying listening to CD's at a volume which makes my wife want to "cut up the curtains with scissors". The sound is fantastic. It is time to get out my album collection - about 500 vinyl records which have been in storage for 30 years in a temperature controlled room.

I am looking for advice on purchasing a quality turntable/tonearm/cartridge to fire up my vinyl collection. Hoping I can buy a quality system for $2500 to $3000. Would appreciate suggestions. Classicrock

I highly recommend the Music Hall MMF-7, which you can get for $1295 at Audio Advisor. I have used it for years with excellent results. It has the motor completely isolated from the plinth, which is a very desirable feature.

I have a Benz Micro Ace cartridge, which cost around $600, but they seem to be difficult to find recently; possibly discontinued. The Benz MC Gold seems to have replaced it and it is available from Needle Doctor for $600.

For an excellent phono preamp, I recommend the Musical Fidelity M1 LPS which is available for $449. Superb sound.

I play everything from classical to rock to blugrass to classic jazz...it all sounds fantastic with this system (I just fired up the Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo album; do you have that one?)

(FYI-System consists of the above plus Audio Research LS26 preamp, Musical Fidelity M6PRX power amplifier, OPPO BDP-95 player and Vandersteen Treo speakers)

Yeah, I went through a couple of Dual turntables back in the 70s before getting a Harman-Kardon T60 in 1980, which was a HUGE improvement. Of course it cost $500 in 1980 (which was like $1500 or more now), so it's not real surprising how good it was). I used the T60 until 2010 when the main spindle bearing went bad, and then replaced it with the MMF-2.2, which sounded even better.

I don't know of any Dual turntable that was worth a damn when it was new, but maybe I missed one somewhere.

The Music Hall MMF-2.2 is only $500 or so, and is 1000% better-sounding than any old Dual. You can get one of those plus $300 or so for an Ortophon Blue cartridge and $200 for a Pro-Ject Box S phono preamp and have a pretty nice-sounding setup for around $1000.

You might want to try that setup; it will be very good. Most people will find it very satisfying.