Vinyl Asylum Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

---

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Vinyl Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

Big bang for the buck is DIY everything, except cartridge

Posted by Kurt Strain on November 12, 2001 at 20:08:02

I used to have some pretty expensive high-end gear. I have found that I can beat the cost of the high-end by going DIY everywhere I can. Here's my list of "DIY" components:

Teres turntable kit, $1200
Self designed and constructed phono preamp, line stage, and SET amp, about $3000 for all
ORIS 150 horn speaker kit, about $4000 for top-of-the-line drivers
Magnet wire for interconnects and speaker wire, for pennies

The purchased components:
EAR MC-3 moving coil step-up transformer, $1000
VPI JMW-10 arm, $1400

And the thing I can't live without anymore, the disposable Koetsu Urushi cartridge, for $4000!

All those bargains, and I am stuck paying out that hefty price for the cartridge because I can find no suitable replacement.

What I am saying with all this is that there are bargains to be had in the world of kit building that can get you state-of-the-art performance, but when you get to that all important cart, you are stuck paying the premium for that high level of performance, at least that's my opinion after installing this thing in my system. It's head and shoulders above the other carts I've tried, including my previous Transfiguration Temper Supreme.

The Urushi/Teres/JMW is to 35mm movie film as DVD is to SACD, IMO.

Kurt

Koet

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Parts Connexion

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---