I went by a sweet audio shop in Houston today looking for a turntable (maybe too nice, the cheapest turntable they had on display was a $5K McIntosh) and there were $30K D’Agostino and McIntosh components aplenty, so I was pretty impressed. The only table I was mildly interested in was a McIntosh table with everything integrated into the turntable (preamp with tubes AND an amp right in the table, just add speakers, and it’s a legit brand- McIntosh) for uh… $7K. Sigh. This doesn’t seem to make sense.
But, the nice guy there said they could order me a turntable in my budget. He suggested a Rega P6. I’m trying to compare it to the Pro-Ject X8.
Project looks like it MIGHT have better build quality, it adds balanced outputs, and a machined aluminum platter (no subplatter), and better wow and flutter specs. But it weighs 3 times as much as the Rega…
In the Rega’s favor it weighs a third as much, has an external power supply (I don’t know how much I care about the external PSU if the X8 is balanced, maybe someone can opine). The Rega has a subplatter and the X8 doesn’t. I don’t really know if that matters but it would seem that no subplatter would be better.
I’d have to spend a bit more on the X8 to get a MC cartridge, but the delta isn’t huge. The P6 is $2,245 with a MM cartridge. The X8 is $2500 with a MM cartridge. (why in the world they don’t sell it with a MC cartridge as a balanced table, beyond me). I might ask if they can keep the MM cartridge and just give me a credit.
The only other tables that have been interesting were the much cheaper Orbit Theory (which seems like a nice table and a nice company to support, but I would probably give it to my niece after a while), and maybe the Pro-next x2b (but the X8 upgrades seem to make sense over the x2 B… at least they make more sense than a $7K McIntosh.
He didn’t have any of the “budget” ($2.5k) tables to play, and I haven’t found anywhere in Houston that has them in stock (if anyone has a shop they would suggest in Houston, that would be righteous too).
Am I missing anything? Seems like a bummer that a nice shop like this can’t stock a couple of examples in my budget that I can listen to. What should I expect from these turntables?
But, the nice guy there said they could order me a turntable in my budget. He suggested a Rega P6. I’m trying to compare it to the Pro-Ject X8.
Project looks like it MIGHT have better build quality, it adds balanced outputs, and a machined aluminum platter (no subplatter), and better wow and flutter specs. But it weighs 3 times as much as the Rega…
In the Rega’s favor it weighs a third as much, has an external power supply (I don’t know how much I care about the external PSU if the X8 is balanced, maybe someone can opine). The Rega has a subplatter and the X8 doesn’t. I don’t really know if that matters but it would seem that no subplatter would be better.
I’d have to spend a bit more on the X8 to get a MC cartridge, but the delta isn’t huge. The P6 is $2,245 with a MM cartridge. The X8 is $2500 with a MM cartridge. (why in the world they don’t sell it with a MC cartridge as a balanced table, beyond me). I might ask if they can keep the MM cartridge and just give me a credit.
The only other tables that have been interesting were the much cheaper Orbit Theory (which seems like a nice table and a nice company to support, but I would probably give it to my niece after a while), and maybe the Pro-next x2b (but the X8 upgrades seem to make sense over the x2 B… at least they make more sense than a $7K McIntosh.
He didn’t have any of the “budget” ($2.5k) tables to play, and I haven’t found anywhere in Houston that has them in stock (if anyone has a shop they would suggest in Houston, that would be righteous too).
Am I missing anything? Seems like a bummer that a nice shop like this can’t stock a couple of examples in my budget that I can listen to. What should I expect from these turntables?