Comparison of 2 turntables that will connect to my Sonos system.

In my opinion the Victrola-Stream-Carbon has a better cartridge.

Have a read of 

https://en.community.sonos.com/groups/using-sonos-with-a-turntable-229138

there’s a few posts on there from people with both those kinds of turntables 😊

I just got a Rega Planar 1 myself but after researching the project range found that the Rega was more suited to music I listened to ie Rock music.

the T1/ortophon cartridge was more suited to jazz/classical listening 

no idea on the other option as I didn’t look at it 

hope this helps 

btw really enjoying my choice listening to it on my 2x5s and sub

I really don’t miss having to swap cartridges for different types of music and for different recording formats (Anyone Remember Quadradisc CD-4) followed by tonearm height, tracking and weight adjustments.

Spending the money to get one cartridge that is well reviewed for different music types is a very good investment in frustration reduction!

Yea! The ‘best’ vertical tracking angle varies with each cartridge sample and record. The most practical plan is to use a turntable with a calibrated arm height adjustment and use the height adjustment to optimize the vertical tracking angle for each record, then paste a label on the record for future reference. Unfortunately, after replacing the cartridge, you’ll need to adjust angles again.

Not everyone is sensitive to cartridge setup consequences. In some ways you are more fortunate than I!

I had a guy who liked my turntable and bought the same model and cartridge, but didn’t think that it sounded very good. He brought the turntable to me and I had my way with it, then it sounded as good as my turntable.

How do you discover the correct angle? It’s a project. Interesting, as you approach the optimum angle the sound actually degrades a bit, then a veil is lifted when you arrive.

@buzz

Just another proof of vinyl being some kind of voodoo or religion. 😅

Not really voodoo, just not often published science. I learned about this at the dinner table. That evening we probably had the bulk of people who understood the science sitting at that table. After the dinner I tried to verify the science and found only a few articles had ever been published on the subject. I finally dug up a fundamental paper from 1941 and a couple in the 1950’s. All of the other discussions of cartridge alignment were trash. In the last couple decades we’ve made some progress. 

@buzz 

Wow… so you really were lucky to have a dinner in such a round of experts. 😎 

And I like the fact that some very old relicts of sience and wisdom still are up to date these days. „The wheel can’t be invented a second time“… 😅

The 1941 paper will remind you about how much advanced math you’ve forgotten. A 1945 paper was much easier to understand, but the author made a customary math simplification that usually doesn’t matter, but it really does matter in this case.

@buzz

Good to know that in this dark period of history there still were such intentions of using mathematics. But back to topic… 

Thankfully I have emerged from the hifi and later the home theatre rabbit holes and compromise rules my decisions these days 

I could throw money at my systems to achieve nirvana but been there got the 3 piece suit…. 😜

I have an arc sub and 2 ones for my cinema pleasure and 2 5s and sub for music 

i picked the Rega Planar 1 for my turntable for cost and the tonearm had won awards as good value and paired with the AT cartridge was good with in your face music 😊

not going to play anything else so win win

the days of me wearing a monocle magnifier and using scales are long gone 👍

I had access to some very good test equipment at work and they were happy to let me use it to play with my turntable. Adding in several test records as signal sources gave me some really good insights.

By connecting the turntable to a phono pre-amp for proper loading and to a dual trace oscilloscope (ahead of the pre-amp) you could actually see the problems caused by the various misalignment problems. Watching and listening you could train your ears/brain a bit and increase your ability to detect issues without the scope.

https://ortofon.com/products/ortofon-test-record

Excellent description of the tests down a bit here:

https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/35532/Analogue_Productions-The_Ultimate_Analogue_Test_LP-Turntable_Set_Up_Tools

Many more out there.

Thanks to all who replied to my original post.

I decided to buy the Victrola Carbon Stream. And in case anyone else is interested, Victrola just lowered the price by $100 (was $799, now $699).

@FHE2019 hope you enjoy your purchase as much as I am enjoying mine 👍