Also, I ran myself sick going back and forth between getting a Technics SL-1210mk5(new one on craigslist) and heading the "audiophile" table route.  What are people's thoughts on the difference between the "DJ" tables and the audiophile stuff?

Some folks are huge fans of classic DD tables (Technics, Dual, Pioneer, etc) for their supposed speed accuracy vs. entry level belt-drive tables, but I don't really see much of an advantage there. You can get pretty good results from those tables certainly, provided you put a serious arm and cart on them, but you may be giving up a significant cost advantage depending on what you paid for the table initially. Some of the cart/arm/table package discounts are pretty massive vs. buying everything individually.

In my book the order of importance is cart > arm > table, but a good motor is definitely important.

Brushing in cleaning fluid and hand rinsing/drying will help your noise issues, but for the best results you really need a good RCM like a Nitty Gritty, Moth, or VPI 16.5. I'm normally not much of a VPI fan, but the 16.5 is excellent.

The VPI 16.5 is the best investment I've made in vinyl, bar none.  I was hesitant, but once you hear clean records you never go back!



Lots of "stuff" going on with my vinyl rig... I'm hoping to get my SME 3009 back soon from total refurbish and rewire.  Essentially it will be brand new.  I'm adding a custom machined base because the "base" that was on the table when I got it was a total joke. 

I'm also going to go with my first moving coil cartridge. A friend is setting me up with a NOS GAS Sleeping Beauty which should do well with the 3009 improved. 

I am waiting on some iron from Cinemag to build my own step up for the MC.

Not so much vinyl, but analog anyway, I picked up a reel to reel to play around with.  After some basic maintenance the first thing I plan to do is bypass the internals and build a tape stage for it.   I really love the sound of tape, it's just too bad that the selection of material is very limited.

I think the VPI will probably be my next purchase as the the crackle keeps making me do double takes thinking that something is distorting in the music.

Not a VPI fan?  I had already planned out my "end of the line" table as the Aries 3 based on aesthetics alone but I suppose I will have to actually research beyond looking at the pictures.

Yeah I don't like JMW arms. Also a friend of mine went through hell with them trying to get the motor for his TNT to actually work. For what the Aries 3 costs, I would suggest Origin Live instead. Their tables are all gorgeous and sound great, and their arms are as good as anyone's. I like Brinkmann, Kuzma, and Dr. Feickert too, but at "reasonable" prices O-L is my favorite.

@shipsupt - the real question is: are you going to ship it in for the bay area meet or carry it on the airplane?   

@DaveBSC - I checked out the origin live from your posts awhile back in the thread.  Those do look pretty crazy.