I'm starting to be interested in these two TT makers, and would appreciate your opinion.

So, SOTA Sapphire with a sub-$1000 Tonearm (maybe the JMW-9 or the RB300 or something)OR the VPI Scoutmaster (or the Scout - cheaper) with the JMW-9.

Thoughts? Any around or under $3,000 TT/Tonearm combos I shouldn't overlook? A plus if it is made in the USA.

I'd also like any input on the vacuum clamp system. My immediate reaction is "no way" because I'd think it would add noise and make things unecessarily complicated.

OK I am moving out to the states (from the UK) in a couple of months time and will need to look at getting new HiFi when I am out there........Initially I will not be shipping my CD's or LP's out there, so my main source component will be an apple ipod.....I will be investing in one of the 160gb classics.....all my music is ripped in lossless format.

So, I recently purchased an Onkyo tx-sr705 home theater receiver and I'm looking for a speaker solution to accompany it. I have no more than $500 I can spend on the speakers (excluding subwoofer I suppose). I was originally considering the Yambeka 5.0 system but now it seems like that may be a little too large for the space I have. Overkill and all that. Other options I've looked at are the budget athena series, the jbl venue series, and the harmon kardon hkts-18.

Part I

Quote:

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"...I love it when I'm right" - DUP"

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As many of you know, my friend Stew and I have been at DUP's some time ago where we were quite impressed with DUP's Legacy Whispers. From that point on, my friend Stew was contemplating replacing his JM Lab Nova Utopia Be's with the Whispers.

Amplifier of the year...hmmmAVA is amplifer of the decades then, for much less, no cool blue meters though, just sonic excellence. http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/inside/83.asp

We proved last night, it's NOT the greatest audio company, they make good stuff, but AVA does is for less, and does it BETTER. Mortals are saved at AVA, and Legacy speakers complete the system. http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/inside/default.asp
www.avahifi.com
www.legacyaudio.com

I was on two separate quests to find (1) an easy and high quality way to archive my vinyl to my hard drive and (2) a way to correct the "thin" sound I was getting from my turntable. When I asked questions about this in the forum, a certain piece of equipment came up in each: the Bellari VP-530. Well, the VP-130 (previously the 129) came up, but that doesn't have a USB output. The VP-530 seems to be essentially the same preamp with an added USB out, and RIAA/flat EQ curve toggle (i.e., the option to turn the RIAA curve off). I had found reviews of the VP-129/130, but none for the VP-530.