Do I keep anything or start again?

[graham67]

Agree keep you systemdek. the rb300 would benefit massively from an audio origami rewire, the stock wire is awful and a Johnnie7 rewire will hugely improve the performance. It is also light which suits the bouncy deck ��

[Natara]

I'd sell one Rega arm and use the money to get the other modified by Audio Origami buy either an Ortofon 2M Blue or something from the Audio Technica VM range, get the amp serviced by firebottle and spend the rest on some good speakers, personally I'd buy something modern by ATC, PMC, Neat or Dynaudio.

[eatapeach]

I'd sell one Rega arm and use the money to get the other modified by Audio Origami buy either an Ortofon 2M Blue or something from the Audio Technica VM range, get the amp serviced by firebottle and spend the rest on some good speakers, personally I'd buy something modern by ATC, PMC, Neat or Dynaudio.

cheers - thats roughly my thinking although the Nytech can be bettered I think but it depends on the cost of putting it right

[AJSki2fly]

cheers - thats roughly my thinking although the Nytech can be bettered I think but it depends on the cost of putting it right

None of the suggested are within budget unless you go for smaller ones and even then pricey, and that will compromise the low end result. Whatever you go for try with the amp you end up with first, preferably a home demo, one speaker may work in your room when another won’t. Remember it depends what type of sound you wants well, quite a few modern speakers can sound a bit up front and become tiring to listen, it’s to do with the materials used in some of the mid and top end drivers. I listened to PMCs extensively at an audition and found that, for me anyway. There are also a pair of Tannoys up for sale on here for about £800 that are good.

[Barry]

Ideally the product of the cartridge's dynamic compliance (in cu) with the total mass (effective mass of the arm + cartridge mass + cartridge fixings, in grams) ought to lay in the range:

175 < MC <400

for the arm-cartridge resonant frequency to lay in the 'safe zone' of 8 - 12Hz.

With either the Ortofon or the Nagaoka cartridges when used in the Rega arm, the calculated arm-cartridge resonance frequencies are borderline; but if the turntable is well isolated, they ought not be any cause for concern.

Use of the Audio Technica cartridge with the Rega arm would appear to be ideal: with an MC product of 234.

[Idlewithnodrive]

My 10p worth is, spend about £1K on some decent speakers, keep and service the Systemdek / RB300 (£150 ?) , £350 - 400 on a new decent MM cart and leaves about £800 (after selling the Rega / R200) for a nice integrated.

Speakers are by far the most important element in the chain.

[eatapeach]

My 10p worth is, spend about £1K on some decent speakers, keep and service the Systemdek / RB300 (£150 ?) , £350 - 400 on a new decent MM cart and leaves about £800 (after selling the Rega / R200) for a nice integrated.

Speakers are by far the most important element in the chain.

Yes - I'm coming to that conclusion! cheers

[eatapeach]

I'd sell one Rega arm and use the money to get the other modified by Audio Origami buy either an Ortofon 2M Blue or something from the Audio Technica VM range, get the amp serviced by firebottle and spend the rest on some good speakers, personally I'd buy something modern by ATC, PMC, Neat or Dynaudio.

I've been in contact with Johnnie7 and he's given a list of options. So I'm going to look at those and prioritise what I think will give most benefit.

I also chatted with Fidelity Designs about a platter upgrade.
So the current glass is 10mm thick and weighs 1767 grammes. The closest replacement is Delrin 15.5mm thick which weighs 1500 grammes. Now I know Systemdek did offer a metal rectangular armboard and acrylic 20mm platter on the IIx 900 - mine has the metal armboard but glass platter.

So the question is whether the 15.5 mm platter from Fidelity will work or not - will it be heavy enough? I think maybe the 20mm platter might need a shim for the arm to keep the angles correct. FIdelity do offer a 17mm Delrin platter which will be closer to the weight of the original platter but it may need some firtling with the arm to make it work.

Apart from there there are several good threads on low cost practical mods to the Systemdek that I'm going to look at - fingers crossed!

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=99274.0

https://hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/8...-of-turntable/