My last flirtation with analog was in 2015, when my DAC (AMR DP-777) handily beat my Rega 6 TT with Shelter cart. I sold the rig. Since then was a digital guy. But somehow my system never satisfied. Upgrade after upgrade of digital even to the rarefied levels -- Bricasti, Nagra.
About an year back, sometime in middle of 2020, I decided to punt on getting the 55th Anniversary Technics table that was just announced which came with TT, clamp, cartridge, tonearm all matched, all black, and resting on the laurels of the Technics SL1200G that Fremer made so famous with a comparison with his 80K$ TT where no one could tell which table was which.
Also, perhaps in the back of the mind, I realised I must have done something wrong with my Rega setup, maybe a cart/tonearm mismatch, and for a noob like the SL1210GAE was idiot proof. All the heavy lifting (tonearm, cart, already done. Plug and play.
But I couldn't find a dealer anywhere in Europe, USA who wasn't sold out. All the 1000 tables released in this limited edition were sold out.
A few months later, Technics decided to do me a solid, and release 210 more of these TTs, and I found a dealer in Scotland (of all the places) willing to sell me one, BUT he wasn't willing to ship to India. He was not comfortable doing so. I had a WTF moment. Then relented and asked him to ship it to godown in the USA, that would hold it for me, until my trip to USA.
Finally when I went to the USA in August 2021, after the hullaballoo of pandemic had died down a bit, I was able to bring the TT back.
But I had no phono stage and the dealers in India were quoting 3X of Japan retail price for an Accuphase phono.
To cut the story short, I imported it from Japan, it came a month later, and finally the TT was assembled and ready to go.
And how does it sound?
Shit!! I found it more involving than my digital which is 7X, 7X!! the price (Granted my digital is not optimised as it should be at that level, but still), and I have not even optimised the TT, I am sure my anti-skates levels are wrong, perhaps the cart loading is off, perhaps the cart is not perfectly aligned, but still it sound pretty damn awesome.
I had once started a thread about where to spend money on source or amps, I chose source and bought my last DAC, but perhaps I choose the wrong source and should have gone analog instead of digital.
About an year back, sometime in middle of 2020, I decided to punt on getting the 55th Anniversary Technics table that was just announced which came with TT, clamp, cartridge, tonearm all matched, all black, and resting on the laurels of the Technics SL1200G that Fremer made so famous with a comparison with his 80K$ TT where no one could tell which table was which.
Also, perhaps in the back of the mind, I realised I must have done something wrong with my Rega setup, maybe a cart/tonearm mismatch, and for a noob like the SL1210GAE was idiot proof. All the heavy lifting (tonearm, cart, already done. Plug and play.
But I couldn't find a dealer anywhere in Europe, USA who wasn't sold out. All the 1000 tables released in this limited edition were sold out.
A few months later, Technics decided to do me a solid, and release 210 more of these TTs, and I found a dealer in Scotland (of all the places) willing to sell me one, BUT he wasn't willing to ship to India. He was not comfortable doing so. I had a WTF moment. Then relented and asked him to ship it to godown in the USA, that would hold it for me, until my trip to USA.
Finally when I went to the USA in August 2021, after the hullaballoo of pandemic had died down a bit, I was able to bring the TT back.
But I had no phono stage and the dealers in India were quoting 3X of Japan retail price for an Accuphase phono.
To cut the story short, I imported it from Japan, it came a month later, and finally the TT was assembled and ready to go.
And how does it sound?
Shit!! I found it more involving than my digital which is 7X, 7X!! the price (Granted my digital is not optimised as it should be at that level, but still), and I have not even optimised the TT, I am sure my anti-skates levels are wrong, perhaps the cart loading is off, perhaps the cart is not perfectly aligned, but still it sound pretty damn awesome.
I had once started a thread about where to spend money on source or amps, I chose source and bought my last DAC, but perhaps I choose the wrong source and should have gone analog instead of digital.
