Hello from sunny Suffolk

[Justjon]

Good afternoon, as you may have guessed my name is Jon and i’m from Suffolk (UK).
I recently decided to recommission my old gear with the intent of getting back into vinyl after too many years of being lazy and listening to music on my phone, iPad or mac (don’t lynch me please). I’ve also started to enjoy making my own beer and have taken up wearing tight fitting leather and riding insanely fast motorcycles again. Middle age, here i come!
So, what i have consists of B&W 705’s (on matching stands), all QED cables, Arcam AVR200 & P85 power amp, Pro-ject Debut carbon with OMB 10 stylus, Pro-ject phono box (cheapest one) and Marantz CD6004 CD player all sat on a Soundstyle XS100 rack. Headphones are Grado SR225.
The Marantz was the latest purchase, although to be honest since putting needle to vinyl i haven’t taken a second look at it and it’ll probably never get used again. I don’t wish to start a debate, but i just really dislike the lack of occasion from playing a CD, that and the clinical sound.
As for music, I’ve started to visit my local record shop (the same one i bought from when I was a teenager, thank God these places still exist) and also charity shops to buy Smiths, Jam, Police, Cure, Stones, Dylan, AC/DC, Motorhead, Simon & Garfunkel, floyd, Ian Dury and various other stuff so far.
Fortunately my mother kept some of my vinyl from when i was a kid, the titles of which i shall keep undisclosed due to sheer embarrassment.
My reason for joining is to learn from the vast experience here and to try and get the best bang for buck vinyl based system i can afford.
So, if anyone is still awake after all that, I have a question(s)
I have a budget of approx £400 (preferably less) to replace the Arcam AVR200 with a new amp as i can’t imagine it’s best suited to just playing records? I do want to keep the P85 power amp though.
The other thing bugging me is, should i get a better phono stage or stylus? If so, which ones?

Thanks for any advice given.

[trio leo]

Hi Jon,
Welcome to the AoS from me, yet another vinyl spinner joins the group, good to see, I bet you get some nice music from that system.
I'm sure you will find lots of interesting stuff on this friendly forum.

Enjoy your music :)

cheers Al

[trio leo]

Hi Jon,
Welcome to the AoS from me, yet another vinyl spinner joins the group, good to see, I bet you get some nice music from that system.
I'm sure you will find lots of interesting stuff on this friendly forum.

Enjoy your music :)

cheers Al

[Justjon]

Thanks, i hope to :)
I have a million questions that are begging for answers.
What i will say is that if I had't rediscovered the joy of vinyl I wouldn't have bought any of these albums.

http://i.imgur.com/bHpBRBA.jpg

Am i daft as a brush? Yes, probably. But i'm glad i did as every one sounds magnificent compared to what i was listening to :mental:

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Jon,

And welcome back to vinyl! :)

Barry

[DSJR]

Hi Jon from 'the end of the road'

The P85 only really needs a preamp, doesn't it, or are you bi-amping? A great active preamp with a top class phono stage would be the Croft Micro 25 if you can find an ex dem or used one - don't bother with a used Micro basic, as it's a dead ender and won't do line level sources huge favour ime. The Micro 25 has a wonderful mm phono stage in it and a really good line stage too, together with an upgrade path should you ever wish it.

SCRAP THE QED CABLES FFS!!!!!!! if the interconnects are Silver Spiral, I'll forgive you, but Silver Anniversary or Micro speaker cables deserve the tip as they hold no place in a quality music system - sorry, but so many Sevenoaks shops sold this stuff by the kilometre and it downgrades EVERY speaker ever connected to it in my experience - and I sold it too for a short while until I heard the severe error of my ways. Use Talk 3, Belden (from Mark Grant) or try some NVA LS1 instead and avoid dealer sourced cables wherever possible, as they usually carry huge margins...

If something like the Croft appeals, you may find that playing a CD will begin to bring back the sense of occasion with this format as well as the excellent vinyl stage. I'm playing safe here, but with some care and sensible advice (Klotz interconnects in this instance), I think we can get you enjoying ALL formats and not just heaving a sigh of relief when the records come on - something severely wrong there if that's the case, but it's very difficulty to prove from miles away on a keyboard ;) If a little Denon 520 player can do it, as well as my new Chromecast-Audio dongle, then a Marantz 4002 should be able to as well.

Oh and as soon as you can, PLEASE change the OM10 stylus for an OM20 one and reset tracking weight to 1.5g or thereabouts. I know it costs a ton or so, but your ears will thank you for it I promise you ;)

[Justjon]

Hi Dave and thanks for your reply.

I am bi-amping at present, so not sure the Croft would be ideal.
As for the QED cabling, the speakers are using Silver anniversary, the Phono stage to AVR200 is Silver spiral (hoorah) and between the amps is a rather weedy looking QED Qunex effort. And yes, they all came from Sevenoaks. In fact everything came from them, apart from a mains block that i bought from Alistair at Signals (it was the only thing i could afford that he sold).
I spoke to Mark Grant earlier (a thoroughly decent chap to deal with) and was recommended VDC Black series for speaker cabling which should be with me Wednesday. I very much look forward to trying it.
Next month i’ll order a OM20 stylus and the month after that new interconnects, and the month after……..

I have a feeling this will get expensive :scratch:

Thanks again

[Spectral Morn]

Welcome to AoS :cool: