One Thing I Know for Sure. I'm Not an Audiophile.

No, as much as I like turntables, I'm not disappointed at all. I even have a third turntable (Technics SL-10) in my workshop.

I did think I'd hear more of a difference but I'm really not disappointed at all. I do prefer the sound of the VPI, but not in a huge way.

 

I'll definitely give that a try.

 

Not even the money, really. The fact that you own the brands you own makes you an audiophile in my book. You have to go out of your way to gain some of the knowledge you learned in order to make some of your choices in equipment.
You don't just walk into a store and come with a lot of what you have. You spent sometime reading and figuring things out, and that, my friend, is an audiophile. How good your ears are doesn't have much to do with it. If audio is your hobby, guess what?

 

I think is more about rewiring you're brain, once it's done for you're system you're much more likely to hear if the system's not producing the goods. I'd certainly find it much easier to hear small improvements in my system than one I'm not used to. I'd say it takes a a relatively short time to rewire, only about three days of dedicated listening, the brain is a wondrous thing.

 

My take - the Pioneer is a hella bang for the buck and VPI has long been over-rated.

Mystery explained.

 

Absolutely, my friend get most of his income from Premier league players and their agent will ring up and say your most expensive system please. They refuse to come in and listen, this goes against his principles but given the demise of audiophiles it's needs must if he wants to stay in buisness

 

This is the thing: if you make it your business to pay attention to nuance and detail, you'll get good at picking out things. And I say this as one who has no great pretensions to expert listening skills. There's a few things that I have trained myself to hear and whole lotta other stuff that I haven't become aware of, but it'd be stupid to pretend that since all the things others talk about isn't immediately apparent to me, then it must not exist. People are resistant to the notion that you can actually get better at listening, but heck, anything else you can do you can get better at. When a guitar teacher tells you that practice makes you a better player, and you need to put in a lot of practice hours before you reach a certain threshold, no one screams. "Snob!" Similarly, anyone can read a novel, but if you're a literary critic, you've got to be able to pick apart plot devices and tropes and dialog and a hundred other literary devices in order to competently say that a book is truly successful or original or whatever it's aiming at. Audiophiles can use practiced skill in electronics and physics and other studies, but the main game is hearing, and understanding what you are hearing or are not hearing. I have no problem presuming that other people have better skills than mine, there's always someone who knows his stuff better. If you can learn from them, that's a good thing. If you refuse to believe that anyone knows more than you do, that's really not a good thing. And yeah, there's a lot of people who talk out of their nether orifice about this hobby as there are equivalents in every area of human discussion. That doesn't mean that no one knows any more than anyone else.

 

Ah, denial...you are posting pictures of your setup to this forum, and BTW it looks really really nice. Accept it lol

 

What's Steve's purposely reductive definition - "If you care about how something sounds, you're an audiophile"? I like that; its simplicity and universality expands the population of audiophiles, and ensnares those who look down upon us rather handily.

I think the problem is, how to rescue the term from its negative stereotypes. Probably a fools' errand, at this point. As usual, not caring about others opinions is the best option; although, in the current political climate, one must be circumspect ...

 

Clearly the OP needs to upgrade his amp and speakers in order to hear bigger differences between his turntables...

Yes, I'm joking.

 

I'm an audiophile & damned proud to be one. If the resurgence in the popularity of vinyl records has taught me one thing it is this: I am not alone. I usually sit alone when listening to my LPs, but that doesn't mean I'm lonely, ya dig? No shame people, be proud & own it...

 

I liked the plx1000 a lot. I still think it's the best table under a grand but the one I lived with for 2 weeks had some noticeable IGD with more difficult LPs where my RP6 did not. Both running the same cart. Even did the alignment twice on the PLX. It was before I read about how to tighten the bearings on the tonearm so that could have been it and it was only on a few albums. The majority of what I listened to was very nice.

As for when or why the term audiophile is now synonymous with the male genitalia well I can think of a half dozen guys I know and a couple that I've come across here that would make perfect examples of why. You disagree with there tweek or 500 USB cable beliefs or profess a like for a speaker made in Arkansas instead of the Italian furniture they call speakers and they go straight to insults about your gear or listening tastes.

Fortunately most of the dudes with gear that like music here and for he most part in this hobby are pretty cool and can take a joke and except that we all won't agree on everything.

But me? I am an Audiophile baby with a capital A. My restored Vintage Fisher 500c and Beautiful Mint Condition CWO Cornwall 1s will attest to that

 

This could be contentious - if you already owned the cutting board, you may or may not be an audiophile.

But if you use a WAY nicer cutting board for sticking under your record player then you've ever had in your actual kitchen, you're an audiophile. I'm guessing most of us are in this latter camp.

 

They fondly hope that they can keep doing their thing just by performing an occasional self staged show trial. Social norms can be so cruel.

 

I'm running an Ortofon Bronze on my PLX-1000 and have to say that I think I'd have to spend a ton of money to get an improvement worth spending said money.

So the OP has but one of the best bang for the buck turntables out of there and doesn't hear a $2,000 difference? I'm thinking all is right in his world.

And remember, different (or more expensive) doesn't always mean better.

 

Wasn't directed at you or anyone in particular - cheer up!

 

I have strong feelings about this — and I think the biggest culprits are the ultrasnobbish negative connotations around infra dig words like oenophile and Francophile (not to mention that a bunch of weird perversions have a -phile suffix), and the deeply unfortunate migration of the entire hi-fi press into the so-called "high end," where everything associated with good audio sound gets slathered with the rhetoric of luxury and gold-plated scientism.

Audiophile has been ruined as a useful, neural word.

 

You nailed it. If component A grades a 90 on a scale to 100, and component B scores a 94, is it worth $2000 more?

 

That question can only be answered by the one paying. 2k is a lot some but not to others. Same thing happens with wine, for instance. The increases in quality start to get exponentially more expensive, while the quality is not necessarily exponentially better.

 

Me thinks thou doth protest too much...

Perhaps the value of the VPI lies not just with the slight increase in audio quality but also build quality and stuff like resale value.

"Audiophile", much like ego, is not a dirty word!

 

Quite.
I am using a Thorend TD150 mark 1. With Shure v15 mk3 and jico ( not SAS)
I have a Garrard 401 SME 4 and Benz Glyder.
Previous turntable was a Linn Sondek plus Naim ARO and Linn Troiksa.
The Td 150 sounds better!
Others have said the same.
Spending oodles of Money does not guarantee better performance.
Based on my own findings, what you, your family, and friends are hearing ( or not hearing!)is that the more expensive turntable is not always the better one.
Trust your instincts.
Check out speaker/ interconnect wires on TNT audio( internet ) really finished my system off.
Compared to 2 years ago my system is vastly superior using less costly kit.

 

That's interesting - I believe you, but I'm curious as to what condition the 401 is in and if rumble issues are bringing it down. That said, there's a reason why I scan local classified ads for TD150s!

 

I agree, I had the chance to audition some high end stuff, and could not tell between $1000 and $3000 stereos or speakers. They all sound good!

 

I use these under my integrated amp as well as my Phono Stage / Step Up Amp / DAC / Speed Box / Airport Express stack.

It's made from Acacia wood, Bed Bath & Beyond carries them, gorgeous grain.
Real Simple® Acacia Wood Chopping Board »

 

My friend calls me an "audio pile". I don't think it's a good thing