Figured I'd update everyone on my vinyl journey...
I've been without a rig for about 10yr. now. My last table was a Well-Tempered Reference with Reference Arm and Benz Ruby cart.. I loved that table and hated it as well. Seemed it constantly needed calibration, but I had done it so many times I got pretty efficient with it. I have about a 3500 LP collection.... with mostly 70's and 80's Rock/Pop. My Classical collection is only about 20% of that total and the rest Jazz. Even though I didn't have a table, I still bought vinyl.
I was getting more requests in the studio from labels and individuals to archive their vinyl. The labels would bring their one-off direct cut discs and I would have to rely on friends to help me out. A big thank-you should go out to Mike and Sean.
Last RMAF, I had the opportunity to snatch up either a Pro-Ject Signature or a SME 30/2. The Pro-Ject was sounding mighty fine with that Koetsu Azule cart. on it. I went home and did some research and felt for my needs, the SME would be the one I would choose. I felt it would be the least finicky and once it was set up, it would need minimal tweaking. The SME comes with the Series V arm.
Since I had less and less Post Projects to deal with and the mastering archival side of the business was backing up, I decided to change the Post room into a Tape/Vinyl Archival/Dup room. I am in the process of getting rid of all my Post equipment and turning the room into a tape/vinyl lovers dream. There is a large Producers bench/rack that was in the back of the room. It is large, massive and would be a good surface to do my work on. I decided to put the turntable on that. During my vinyl archiving, I will be listening through headphones so I won't have to worry about feedback or anything like that. I'm using the great Doshi 3.0 phono pre and have my sights on a Goldfinger and Coralstone. In the meantime, I had been given a cart. to play around with until I got my others. The cart. was pretty obscure but heard good things about it and was told it was solid. I had to do some research, but found that the Garrott Bros. P-88 was a highly sought after cart.
Over the course of a couple of months and many emails back and forth to PeterA, I got the table set up and dialed in. Thank-you so much Peter....!! I mounted the cart. and set the VTF, Anti-skating and pivot to stylus distance. I tried setting up the VTA/SRA as good as I could and loaded the cart. at 100 ohms. Sounded pretty good but I knew it had much more potential. Called up my friend Sean and he came over and did some final tweaking. Thanks to him, I now have a decent sounding rig. If I want to hear it in the big room, I have the option to run cables directly to the XP-30. Then I can crank it up as much as I want since it's in a completely isolated room.
Many thanks go out to the many members here on WBF that helped with this journey. I still need to get some accessories and also have my eye on the KLAudio cleaner as well. Hopefully I will soon have my new cartridges and can play with the big dogs instead of sit on the porch with the puppies. This thing is a work of art!!
I've been without a rig for about 10yr. now. My last table was a Well-Tempered Reference with Reference Arm and Benz Ruby cart.. I loved that table and hated it as well. Seemed it constantly needed calibration, but I had done it so many times I got pretty efficient with it. I have about a 3500 LP collection.... with mostly 70's and 80's Rock/Pop. My Classical collection is only about 20% of that total and the rest Jazz. Even though I didn't have a table, I still bought vinyl.
I was getting more requests in the studio from labels and individuals to archive their vinyl. The labels would bring their one-off direct cut discs and I would have to rely on friends to help me out. A big thank-you should go out to Mike and Sean.
Last RMAF, I had the opportunity to snatch up either a Pro-Ject Signature or a SME 30/2. The Pro-Ject was sounding mighty fine with that Koetsu Azule cart. on it. I went home and did some research and felt for my needs, the SME would be the one I would choose. I felt it would be the least finicky and once it was set up, it would need minimal tweaking. The SME comes with the Series V arm.
Since I had less and less Post Projects to deal with and the mastering archival side of the business was backing up, I decided to change the Post room into a Tape/Vinyl Archival/Dup room. I am in the process of getting rid of all my Post equipment and turning the room into a tape/vinyl lovers dream. There is a large Producers bench/rack that was in the back of the room. It is large, massive and would be a good surface to do my work on. I decided to put the turntable on that. During my vinyl archiving, I will be listening through headphones so I won't have to worry about feedback or anything like that. I'm using the great Doshi 3.0 phono pre and have my sights on a Goldfinger and Coralstone. In the meantime, I had been given a cart. to play around with until I got my others. The cart. was pretty obscure but heard good things about it and was told it was solid. I had to do some research, but found that the Garrott Bros. P-88 was a highly sought after cart.
Over the course of a couple of months and many emails back and forth to PeterA, I got the table set up and dialed in. Thank-you so much Peter....!! I mounted the cart. and set the VTF, Anti-skating and pivot to stylus distance. I tried setting up the VTA/SRA as good as I could and loaded the cart. at 100 ohms. Sounded pretty good but I knew it had much more potential. Called up my friend Sean and he came over and did some final tweaking. Thanks to him, I now have a decent sounding rig. If I want to hear it in the big room, I have the option to run cables directly to the XP-30. Then I can crank it up as much as I want since it's in a completely isolated room.
Many thanks go out to the many members here on WBF that helped with this journey. I still need to get some accessories and also have my eye on the KLAudio cleaner as well. Hopefully I will soon have my new cartridges and can play with the big dogs instead of sit on the porch with the puppies. This thing is a work of art!!
Last edited: