Schiit Sol or Rega Planar 3?

Schiit is local to me. I got to see the Sol in pre-production and production form. I was looking forward to the production model, and decided to pass once I saw it. It’s best to think of the Sol as a kit.

 

Agree with that plan, like action pact said. I only add that the new Audio Technica cartridges seems better price / performance ratio.
I replaced an Ortofon Blue with the vm540ml (on the same price tag) and is miles ahead better. Microline stylus tracks like a champ and much better detail, I think competes with bronze .... almost half cheaper.

 

I have two Schiit products, a Modi 3 DAC and a Magni headphone amp. I have been very pleased with their quality and performance.

 

I’ve used every deck I recommended except the music hall. If my information seemed like guesses they’re not. It’s all from hands on experience or from the experience of many other owners. Just by looking at the design of the Sol I don’t have to guess that it’s more difficult to set up, I already know so. A unipivot arm is a different animal that is harder to tame... except on Tuesdays.

I’m joking, even on Tuesdays.

As for the Rega and it’s fast speed and wow and flutter, I’ve heard it multiple times. I recommended the Planar 6 if he wanted to raise his budget because that comes with a speed controller and is a rather impressive sounding deck for the price.

I’ve owned the SL-1500C and can say from experience the cue lever sucks. The auto lift sucks. But other than those two things it’s solid.

I currently own the Gold Note as it met all my requirements and was cheaper than the StudioDeck. However, I wasn’t happy with it till I got it set up. And by set up I mean he had to adjust the motor which is tightened for shipping from Tuscany and he also set up every little thing properly with equipment I didn’t have. So the reason I said only consider this if you can have it professionally set up is because there is some first time setup (like the motor) that needs to be done that isn’t exactly mentioned in the manual at all, it’s up to the dealer.

I’m just trying to help this person out by sharing my own experiences and in the case of the Music Hall the experiences of others. I apologize if they were misleading. I only asked to hear about what he gets and how it goes so that I can learn even more about the model he chooses. His experience can be passed on to other people who are in the market for a turntable and it can help them make the right decision.

 

This. So much this. I've owned Rega, SOTA, Mofi, and a bunch more turntables. I have a Technics now. It's wonderful.

 

Then please fill out your profile so we know what you have and have experience with. Or mention in your posts that you have owned and used the gear you're commenting on like that.

 

i've had a bunch of schiit products, sold some to upgrade to better schiit always happy with it

recently my eitr died sometime after two years which was outside of the warranty period

they extended the warranty and asked for me to send it in for repair, shortly after they received it they contacted me to say it was fixed and they were sending it back no charge

when i got it back i was pleased to see that they sent me a new one

certainly can't complain about that, i like them and their products

 

Assuming there is nothing wrong with it, very good deal there. Consider the included cartridge a freebie throwaway you can use until you can get something better.

 

I own a Sol, and was a beta participant, I am using a 75 dollar Grado Prestige Black, and a Schiit Mani.

I have not heard the Rega.

I'm really a turntable noob.

I took my time, watched Schiits, admittedly ****ty first video, watched the much better video done by Conrad Hoffman, the original brain behind the design. I want to say it took me 2-3 hours over two evenings to drop the needle.

I think the SOL sounds awesome. But I'm sure the Rega does as well. I have some good copies of Dire Straits Brothers in Arms, Doobie Brothers - The Captain and Me, and Gerry Rafferty City to City

To ume they sound just as good on my vinyl setup as they do on Tidal or Qobuz

It's a nice TT, and has lots of possibilities for tinkering, if you want.

 

watch this video where a P3 is compared to a 1200mk5 with good headphones, maybe it will help you, it certainly helped me, Ian is an amazing guy.

 

Now he needs to do a similar comparison of the 1200 MK5 against his Avid.

 

Well, we need to compare apples to apples ... p3 and a 1200mk5 seems on "same level". But I think the emoticon shows an ironic comment

But, following your thinking, I see comparations on a new 1200s with a sme V tonearm without differences with a high-end sme 15 turntable with the same hana cartridge. Obviously all the system was top notch, luxman eq-500 phono preamp, McIntosh electronics, jbl 4700 speakers ...

Maybe that satisfy your curiosity
The video is in Spanish (my mother language), maded by an Spanish audiophile ... but is not important if you understand the language. Much more important is the proof of the test.

 

It was a tongue in cheek comment to compare against the Avid.
Different price class. It's also a stout belt drive TT that looks like it means business.

 

Funny, Schiit is what Rega was a couple of years ago. Criticise them and the hords of armchair Schiiters comes to 'rescue'. S is a marketing company that produces consumer electronics sold at a price point. Just read on the other forum what their head marketing guy says about customer support and the implication that their poor customer service workers has to wade through endless stream of counsciousness emails from audiophiles that suffers from 'audiophile nervosa'. When infact a customer doesn't want to know that it is most important thing is that the inner box is returned in pristine shape! Sorry for the rant. I feel much better now.

 

Hey, i think that comparation is very interesting ... where is the end in this "audiophile" adventure?
There are limits on what is a very good sounding audio system and after that you're looking for very tiny details costing a lot of money.

In that video you can see someone who finds the 1200 as an ultimate platform, upgrading the tonearm in the new 1200 series is a piece of cake, even the acrilyc dust protector have that vault shape over the tonearm base. You can add a top notch tonearm and the Technics becames a beast, because platter / motor / isolation is really, really good.
Or, the KAB fluid damper, more or less 170 bucks, and transforms the Technics tonearm in something much better.

I mean, your thoughts seems simple (and funny) ... but there are something serious behind.

 

UPDATE ON MY NEW TURNTABLE!!!
I bought a new SL-1500c turntable, I was so excited to try it, took me less than 30 minutes before dropped the needle, as soon as I started playing noticed that the platter was wobbling... Looking further seems like a milling issue, you were able to see the polished lines around the platter go from thinner to wider and was so out of balance, if I turned on the 78rpm I was able to feel the turntable shaking... Super disappointed... So today I returned and now I'm back looking for a new turntable. I was looking a few options SL-1200mk7/mk5 or Schiit Sol ( yes I'm still interested in the Sol‍♂️)

 

Thank you for shearing your experience. The auto stop from my sl1500 didn't work neither...

 

I will love to see it playing!

 

First, make sure the platter was installed and seated correctly.

The polish around the platter (or strobe dots in the case of other models) do not necessarily mean the platter is suffering from excessive runout. Could just mean the dots or polish are uneven. You really need a runout gauge to check runout precisely.

Now, there have been a minority of new Technics buyers (even GR and G models) that got warped platters and had to do a return/exchange to get a good one. Mistakes in production happen when a new production line is being set up. It doesn't mean they are all like that.

 

I made sure the turntable was properly level, and the platter was properly installed, I didn't have a run-out gauge, but I was able to see it, and when I pressed 78rpm I felt it shaking, and 100% agree with you about the new production, but unfortunately the store only had that one.

 

Sounds like you had horrible luck. Was that a local shop? If you had bought from a big dealer they probably would've paid for the return shipping and just sent you another one to try.

 

You only need to ask for a replacement ... technics platter wooble is not an everyday thing.

 

It was an "authorized dealer" from eBay but unfortunately they only had that one...

 

Not sure what dealer it was but Value Electronics is a big dealer, along with Crutchfield, Sweetwater, and maybe a couple others. Not every shop will have every model. Sweetwater usually carries the GR and MK7, but not the 1500C. Crutchfield and Value should have the 1500C.

 

Wasn't none of those, as I am writing this reply I'm looking to a Technics MK5 ($322 US dollars) in a Japanese Hi-Fi online store. I was reading that SL1200mk7 is not the best quality compared to the older MK5. The said it feels "cheap". This is just based in opinions I guess, I'm not a DJ, it will be used just for listening music. There's the link.

SL-1200MK5 Technics - HiFi-Do McIntosh/JBL/audio-technica/Jeff Rowland/Accuphase