I had a turntable up to about three years ago and loved it.

Heavily modified Technics SL-1200 Mk.II (bearing, platter, modified circuit with split power supplies and regulators, feet) with Dynavector DV-507II arm, a thing of beauty, and Shelter 5000 cartridge. Doing phono duties was an Aurorasound VIDA. It had reached a pretty decent level of sound but I felt I had hit the limits of vinyl replay and decided to take a different direction.

You're right about the drama of putting a record on, though.

I just have to use my tablet with a flourish

Your system is what you want whilst I extol the virtues of vinyl I could not be dogmatic suggesting it is for everyone.

In my experience there need to be symmetry between arm and cartridge when obtained suitable ancillaries like phono stage, preamp and amplifier  as well as speakers. I was lucky more than 20 years ago I bought an original moving Iron Cartridgeman Musicmaker  Len Gregory & I became friends he got me to test several iterations of his Isolator using several types of isolation material.

When I damaged my then Syrinx 2 with mass ring. Len advised buying a Hadcock 242 silver + for which he made me a solid silver phono lead.   I had a new for old insurance policy they agreed to pay as the alternatives  were double the price.

Initially the counterweight was a PITA the constantly drooping  flexible counterweight stub caused the tracking weight to change,  I rang Len & suggested George Hadcock fit a solid stub I postulated an improvement in usability & improvement in sound quality, smugly I was correct, subsequently George  sent me the improved bearing housing with solid stub.  

I further improved the arm with a one off XTC counterweight as my Musicmaker cartridge had an Isolater fitted was 5.5mm taller, John Chong used an algorithm on his computer to calculate where the COG at the stylus tip was. then using existing parts used on other arm counterweights created one to my specific needs at only10% more than the usual Hadcock counterweight. 

Len & I discussed improvements to the Musimaker as I'm sure others did as well, giving rise to the Mk2    After i retired My by now Musicmaker 3 was getting tired I asked if he could do a re-tip he said he would but for £300 would do an upgrade, a no brainer.

I made the 120 mile round trip to Croydon  Had a cup of his to die for coffee with soy milk (he was a vegan)  when I got the cartridge home his parting words resonated, "be careful of the cantilever"  I saw it was Sapphire & that the new fitted Isolator was only 3-4mm thick. Assembled by my tremulous sausage fingers. 

The moment the stylus touched vinyl I knew it was special after 20 sides it was amazing digging more from the grove than I thought possible. I sent him an email extolling the virtues of the cartridge  his reply 


Hello John;


I thought you’d like it – you are saying (and hearing) all the right things. Now I’ll let you into a secret; you have been one of my ‘guinea pigs’ if you will, it has cost me more than it did you, but it was worth it. The cartridge you are using is indeed a new model, not yet on general release, , and I would like you to carry on evaluating it for a month or so longer, this unit the "Musicmaster" is going to replace both the Classic and Classic LE.

Best wishes



Leonard



TCM Ltd.

Vat. Reg.no. 802-4944-42

co.reg.no. 4451444

I did as he asked apparently I paid less than the cost of cantilever and stylus let alone it's fine  silver coils Len had decided to call it the Musicmaster.

The Musimaster was designed/evolved on a Hadcock 242 silver plus, Len only used valves on his Quad speakers, indeed had arranged for Mr croft to make my phono stage my pre & power amps are valve feeding my OTA Quads Len was using an Acoustic Solid TT my  Hydraulic Reference with 9mm thick Duralumin arm board, 1" deep solid brass spacer, No longer AC motor driven it has a Maxon DC motor. The 3 feet are no longer foam filled they sit on Oak Cone's all of the 9 foam pads on the plater were replaced with carbon impregnated PTFE pads, it is also unsprung, sits on a 100 kg paving stone in a brick alcove with wooden wedges  to couple to the walls. This is as close a synergie as I am ever going to have. and it still works. the last improvement of note was parallel resistance the only parameter to explore as moving irons are impervious to  capacitance changes, I emailed Len. 


Len's reply



Hello John;



No, I have never been dogmatic about input requirements, I have always stated that it is a question of taste – think about it: every system has such varying intolerances of capacitance and resistance what with the wiring and impedance differentials that when I state that the basic requirement is for a 47 kHz input this is meant as a starting point a reference if you will, I have been using something less than this for a couple of decades, but you try explaining this to the guy who buys a phono-stage or pre-amplifier with a fixed value input who has no idea of matters electrical/technical and they freak out.



I think most people I have known for some time usually get round to experimenting with this parameter until they find what they are most comfortable with. I am, so pleased that you are discovering even greater musical treasures than before.



Enjoy the music –



Leonard.

A couple of turntables here. A Gyrodec which I have owned since the beginning of the 90's when they were deeply unfashionable and generally thought to be only about the look. I also have a Goldring G99. They both have Zeta arms and Koetsu Black cartridges. The Gyro is fed into a pair of Bent Audio Mu transformers and then into the phono stage of an Audio Research SP8. The G99 into an LFD MC1 phono stage and then into a line input on the SP8.

I just have the two phono stages, a cole lcr valve phono stage and a benedict audio hothead.

The cole has 2 decks plugged into it, I modified it to have a couple of inputs as the case is huge so there was plenty of space.

My jbe series 3 with airprodigy linear arm and at33sa runs through an lda ha1 into the cole, and my type 3b lenco with the arm im developing and vm750sh runs into the other input.

Both the jvc ql-y5f I have with an empire 1000gt on it, and the xerxes with tabriz and dv20x2 run into the benedict audio.

I rescued the xerxes as it was sagging badly and had a broken psu. Its now all fixed. I also rescued the jvc y5 as it was completely broken. My wife refused to let me sell it on so its hers now. The jbe I have had for a long time, and the lenco is one of my builds.

I also recently rescued and restored a broken jvc ql-y3f that had a million problems, im debating on wether to reveneer the plinth as its a rare black german market one, even though it is abit tatty.

Ive also got in various cupboards, a technics sl150 to put my 3009 on and the arm i made to sanity check myself with it, a 301 (not mine), another lenco, and another 3b lenco that i built.

Its just silly. I keep ending up with the broken waifs and strays but its really nice to bring them back to life.
Oh and an oracle delphi mk2 which was also broken and now isnt. Thats not mine though.

I have two TT's. Not used in a while but I plan to have them (or one of them) in regular service when I have finished building my music centre for the 21st century. 

1) LP12 with Rubikon sub chassis (bit like a Keel), anologue innovations in sole spring replacements, naim aro tonearm,  Lyra Argo cart,  various power supplies ( lingo 1 , Avondale Audio Taps2)

2) Pioneer PL71 (1974 direct drive) - needs fettling ( by Ant hopefully when I get my act together)

I have no idea which of these I will prefer. I have never played a record on the Pioneer and never heard the fruitbox with new sub chassis or the AA Taps 2 psu. Exciting times for me when I finally get it sorted. I have kept buying the odd LP even though I have not been able to play them.

I'm pleased there are a few TT's still in use I look forward to hearing about more

Some might not understand, though I do, apart from a record, CD & cassette collection & comprehensive sound system, I also have a trio of other expensive hobbies demanding their share of my pension.

Some part of me misses my turntable but I know without doubt that it was worth moving on and reinvesting in streaming.