Analogue Options
If you want to rediscover records, or invigorate an existing turntable based system we have some great analogue options for you. There are more and more new vinyl records being produced and a huge reservoir of preowned LPs out there.
You can get better sound out of records than has ever been possible before and we still think that if you compare a new CD with a new vinyl pressing the record sounds better. And when you look at the burgeoning DJ/Dance music phenomenon it is clear records have a great future. And that there are still companies out the that are working to make better quality analogue products.
Our primary source of music at home has always been a turntable. From modest little $600 numbers to a Linn LP12 which we’ve had since 1988 and have gradually updated. And now a new Well Tempered Amadeus. It’s not that we don’t like the sound of the latest CD players like Meridian, it’s just that we have a very big record collection and are still buying new vinyl records. We know a whole lot about record player set up and what sounds good because its what we enjoy.
If you want to set up a new record playing system today you are spoilt for choice. We have listened to and sold many turntables over the years. What makes a system sound good comes down to some very simple principles – the quality of engineering and the materials used being most important. A record player is inherently simple – it just has to go around at a constant speed, and allow the stylus to do its job in terms extracting information from the groove of the record.
The cool thing about analogue is that there is an infinite amount of information on a LP record. The better the record playing system, the more you’ll hear.
We stock an increasingly healthy range of analogue products. Pro-ject turntables – are our entry level – the new Debut 3 is just NZ$ 550 including cartridge and is simply the best option at this very affordable level
Today’s Thorens turntables are a product of tremendous accumulated experience and engineering expertise. The best thing is that they have continued to develop new models and now have an extensive range for you to choose from.Starting point is the newTD158 at just NZ$ 750 complete.
The Thorens TD158 has the advantages of automatic operation, and overall construction which translates to better sound making it worth the little extra. Projects range of models extend into similar territory to Thorens but there are important differences at each level. We can outline the distinctive aspects of each design for you and help you make the right choice.
Then we get really serious. The new Well Tempered Amadeus is simply the finest sounding turntable we've heard, but is by no means the most costly. In fact many cartridges cost more. If you consider yourself an analogue enthusiast, you'll be selling yourself short unless you start to seriously consider this turntable. I'd use the word revolutionary but that would just be a bad pun...
With any turntable you can dramatically improve performance by upgrading the cartridge. We carry and extensive range of options from Grado (all recently updated), Ortofon and Dynavector. We think the Dynavector Moving coils are the ones to beat – they have continued to develop and evolve and we know from experience that they are broadly compatible and free from idiosyncrasy.
Which neatly brings us to phono stages. It’s far to easy to underestimate the importance of a quality phono stage – people can often spend significant amounts on a cartridge which, like it or not, will be wearing from day one. Yet they will still feed this signal into either an inbuilt phono stage of limited performance or some low cost step up device.
The Project Phono Box II at a paltry NZ$ 250 is a great start. The USB Phono Box II is even better as you can get great sounding analogue onto your iPod. And Cambridge Audio's little 640P phono stage (still at only $299) is a bit of a stunner in the value for money stakes.
Years ago we tortured ourselves looking for a preamp for our home system – it had to be seriously good on vinyl as that was our primary source. We eventually settled on the Rotel Michi RHQ10 which is still in place and to be honest we’ve not been tempted to change. Every other phono stage we get through comes up against this (which might be a little unfair given it’s cost and the fact that it has a full variable output so runs direct into any power amp)
Nevertheless we admit to being highly taken with the diminutive Dynavector P75 phono stage. It’s no bigger than the Project but that is the only similarity. Now in Mark 2 form and far more sophisticated in every way and right at the cutting edge of phono stage design, this is the one to beat. The Dynavector P75 works on 3 levels. Firstly for either Moving Magnet or high output coil cartridges, it provides the right step up to line level. Low output moving coils are more demanding and the P75 makes the most of these with a vanishingly low noise floor and exceptional detail retrieval plus the ability to be fine tuned for cartridge loading. Finally for the very best sound – especially the Dynavectors, the Patented Phono Enhancing Circuit designed by Dr Tominari, to dramatically improve the performance of low output moving coil cartridges.
And all this is just really the start of our analogue range. With notable brands such as the Italian Sonus faber, loudspeakers, Quad vacuum tube amplifers and electrostatic speakers, Grado headphones, we've got all the bases covered. Drop us a line and tell us how we can help.
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New Zealand
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John Ransley and Sharon Guytonbeck are the principals behind Totally Wired. It’s our own business and we take pride in building something worthwhile.
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