What to expect from really good or high end turntables?

Of course, one could also just by a MC and stop worrying about loading affecting top octave frequency response at all.

 

My local stereo guy delivered and installed a new Rega Aria stage and Ania MC cart today on my new demo RP8.

Changed out from an old Music Fidelity X-LPS stage and Exact.

Big difference already. Wow. He said it would take 100 hours to really warm up but already hearing a huge improvement. .

Excited.

 

100 hours? Do you smell that smelly smell?

 

My new B&W 702 speakers took a good 100 hours to blossom too..

 

Could you give any proof for this?

 

Proof? It is all in the ears of the owner of the equipment.

I recently acquired a pair of Dynaudio Excite 38's and it took a good 200 hours before they started to sound their best

 

Of course I couldn't give any exact proof aside from my own ears and listening experience. I could really hear the difference over the month or so.

I play my table about three hours per week day and much more on the weekend so it probably was a shorter duration than the average listener. But I could totally tell as the mid range and bass speakers opened up and smoothed out. Big difference over that month or so.

And it is pretty much want my dealer told me and what I've read about these b&ws and many other similar speakers. They were somewhat brite when i first set them up.

 

You want to hear more if what's in the grooves , accurately produced. Good tables deliver that, with an appropriate cart.

 

I''ll put it this way; I heard a nice improvement from my upgraded RP 6 to my RP8. But I heard an even bigger improvement adding the Rega MC Ania cart and Aria stage to the RP 8. Bigger than the turntable upgrade.

Obviously with both upgrades, improvements really showed up. .

 

That is indeed far from proof Im afraid.

 

Fancy that!

 

I think if you want proof of anything claimed you have to go and listen to the equipment. Also there is the matter of how good your hearing is, personal taste, your own room acoustics and pairing equipment. I think in general turntables are the easiest area to relate cost to performance. With speakers and even amplifiers it is not clear cut. Speakers especially as top of the range models have a tendency to reproduce an area of sound reproduction that the designer is focused on, while a cheaper model may be less 'specialised' and more pleasing to most. Surprising results can be achieved from fairly simple designs based around a high quality woofer and tweeter with minimal crossover components. For instance those expensive designer monstrosities with curved lacquered surfaces are less engaging than a plain box I find. That is before one sees the fancy price tag.

 

Ever bought a pair of shoes that were stiff and weren't very comfortable the first time you wore it? However, as you walked around in them over a few wears, they got a bit more comfortable. Think of it that way. Imagine someone asking for proof on whether the shoes on your feet are more comfortable. How would you go about proving that other than telling them about your experience with the shoes?

I think you already had your opinion on this matter before you even asked the question, and any answer given would not suffice. If that is the case, then it's a bit disingenuous to act objectively inquisitive when you really aren't.

 

That is sadly not sufficient as proof. I think most human science workers would agree that a change occuring over weeks and months for 50 let alone 200 hours total is impossible for the human mind to detect reliably.

 

Well it would be easy to show actually, you can measure the shoe for example, and you can show that the foot bruises you used to get from walking a mile dont appear anymore until you walk 10 miles.
But this is a poor analogy as we deal with clear destinctions of feeling pain and getting injured vs not. This is dealing with minute differences in human sense experience.

I think youve aldready got your opinion set on who and what I am like as a person and wont change your mind no matter what I say.
See how its useless and rude to judge others based on your first interaction with them?

 

I didn't mention burn in! If you want my opinion there is burn in but I would avoid something that takes 200 hours to sound good. A vast improvement should be obvious with a few hours use. Obviously there is some warm up out of the box likely because stored in a cold place. Room temp as well as drive units loosening up is significant with speakers. If there is some burn in it should be obvious to the ear within a relatively short time. People who experience these things do not make them up. You can verify it for yourself but one would expect dealer demo stock to be fully burnt in.

 

Congrats. I recently added a Rega Aria for my RP6/Exact/Elicit-R combo. The Aria creates a huge soundstage with a punchy sound. I like it.

 

I dont deny burn in, and I do believe it takes just a few hours for MOST components to fully "burn in", if we use the popular sense of the word.

But the fact of the matter is that some claim to experience what they think is burn in or at least some change over 200+ hours. Thats where the problem lies. You not only claim to have such extraordinary capabilities to hear gradual changes over months but you also claim that there is some sort of change in the component, be it an MM cart or other without knowing what that change is at all.
At what point does things get ridiculous?

 

I kindly ask you guys to please stay in topic. I opened this thread to discuss what to expect of the best turntables and I'm being notified every time someone discuss the validity of objective proofs of how long does it take to speakers break in, something in which I have really no interest at all.

 

I experienced this during the period when I got my Benz Micro Wood cart "burned in"- it improved soundwise for almost 250 hours before it settled down and stabilised. It now has around 910 hours of running time in the log and it's still in the same shape soundwise as 660 hours ago.

 

I also experienced this with my good old B&W N804's- when I got them new it took around 100-150 hours before they blossomed out. They are soon 20 years old and still going strong....and yes they still are in full blossom...

 

Im not sure theres much more to bring regarding that 8 pages in. Unless you have some specific question.

 

I think if you hear a really good Tt you'll just know the answer.

 

If you have decent hearing , and I feel my hearing good, you can tell the difference of music if the high ends are brittle or the lack of bass and midrange is initially there and later it’s not. . Yes taste of what we like may be different but we know the difference when that brightness dissipates or the bass increases.

Rooms and mastering alter this but the equipment, in that hundred hours or so, changes . It physically loosens and warms up. Dynamics change just like with a new car after the first 500 Miles.

 

The thing is that you have to be able to demonstrate this somehow.