Oh man, stereo purchase overload!

[mattybass]

I had to tell SOMEONE about my new stereo purchase besides my friend whose probably going insane hearing my story by now...

I finally took some Christmas money yesterday and splurged on a great entry-level audiophile turntable, the Pro-Ject Debut iii. It was a bit on sale from boxing day too! I brought it home, quickly dismantled my Dual rig (which, I might add, was the worst turntable I've ever heard), and wired up my new table. Oh man. For one, I actually heard sibilance again and not these muffled distorted vocals. Everything was instantly 100 times better.

But with me, I'm always blowing my money on more... I was cruising musicdirect for deals, in particular on a new integrated amp. My vintage Sansui G-5500 just can't drive this table to its full potential. I had originally decided it also needed to be upgraded. The Music Hall a15.2 was a good entry-level $450 amp that got awesome reviews. But, I happened to stumble across a 50% off sale on the model up, the a25.2. $350!! Called them up and it happened to be the very last model. Steal of a deal for sure.

So I'm patiently awaiting a FedEx truck with that baby in it! Music is going to be a lot more fun now...

EDIT

pics are fun...

 

[Pappy]

Enjoy your new toy. Cowabunga dude!

 

[jeffp]

nice.. good look with your new turntable.
i've owned and enjoyed my manual direct drive JVC QL5 since I bought it in the late seventies or maybe 1980; i recommend this turntable which can be found cheap
and was purchased for about $80 new at Bryce Audio in NYC a long time ago...

 

[mattybass]

right on. I got the receiver, not before finding out that they only had a silver finish left (oh well) and that the stupid thing has no phono stage built in (FUCK). Sounds better than my old setup, but the weakest link is a $40 Radioshack phono pre between the TT and receiver which is definitely ruining what beautiful signal I could have. Time to start saving a bit more for a pre :/

 

[DrMephisto]

You'll have a blast with that Pro-ject. Love those puppies. Wouldn't have sold mine, but I got a sweet deal on an older direct drive Denon (which I then replaced the tonearm and cart). I think the biggest difference-maker you'll hear now (after upgrading the phono-pre) will be the cart. Waaaaay too much money can go into those.
I'll put my advice on a good Grado cart. A teeensy bit forward sounding, but for the money they're pretty bang.
Only thing I like hearing more than that someone has made the leap to vaping, is that someone has made the leap to audiophile vinyl. Impossible to go back to mp3s after that jump.