I almost thought this was a joke post, how could you ever get any descent sound out of something like that ? And then on top of that why would you think you could.  Do most members agree your not going to get good , truly minimum level good sound out of any Record, or Digital Source without Spending at least $600.00 on a Amp/Speakers/Turntable ????   I got a friend always bragging about his dumbass all in one amp speaker dealio, he streams to it from his phone,  I finally visit him and it sounds like complete crap, Zero Bass of any kind, not much volume and , no need to go on, its just a piece of crap and he spent like $250.00 on it.  Waste of time too me. If your not willing to invest some space, time and money , don't bother.

If I had the money and could get a deal I would get Music Hall MMF 5.1  Older model but only read good things and it comes with a nice cartridge.

Read lots of questionable things on Rega speed issue,

On ‎4‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 11:49 PM, allenh said:

The Cambridge phono stage is quite good (it should be the same if not very similar in design to their cheaper stand alone one) but yes it can be improved upon.

Get used to what you have now for a while though so that if you do upgrade further you will know what the difference is. If the Cambridge is new let it burn in for a bit, it will get better.

The Chomecast is a wonderful thing, I use them all around the house myself, much better than Sonus and things like that.

This has been sounding quite excellent, the Jades sound much better with this Cambridge than they did with the Onkyo.  We have been having A/B fun, we have a set of Cambridge Aero 2, then my son has all his Wharfedale Diamonds the 10.1 shocked us, holy moly do those sound good., Flaps / Chris

Well its been a few days and here are my updates. The Onkyo is history, replaced with a Cambridge Topaz SR20, sounds a lot better even to me.

When I play Vinyl, I don't have to peg it for descent volume, and the overall sound, is much clearer, tighter, my best description. I lost some features such as Tidal built in, but we handled that with Chromecast and a tablet, works real good.

Now what does everyone think of the pre-amp in the Cambridge, I could still get a better pre-amp if you guys think it is worth it?

Thanks again for all the input, things are sounding better and its so much fun to me to play with this stuff, listen and learn.

Flaps, Chris

10 hours ago, allenh said:

Would this be a worthwhile upgrade over the Onkyo,  Gotta give up easy to use Tidal to get it, let me know your thoughts.

Yamaha A-S701

Stereo integrated amplifier with built-in DAC (Silver)

10 hours ago, allenh said:

 

Chris 
 

 

Only if the Onkyo amp in general allows the off board phono stage to give of it's best and my experience of Onkyo amplification in the last 30 or 40 years tells me that it won't. Modern Onkyo amplifiers and especially the AV ones are not really at their best when it comes to audio use so I would say that is the weakest link here.

The Orbit/Grado Black and Lounge Phono stage choice is a good one but pointless without replacing the Onkyo so If this was my money I would be replacing that amplifier before spending money on anything else. Using an off board will give an improvement as the on board phono stage is so poor but the rest of the amplifier won't allow the off board phono to give it's best anyway so how much is debatable.

50 minutes ago, Jlegg said:

I don't want to bother you too much, but I do appreciate your input, If I could spend $300.00 on a cartridge do you have any you think are worth the money and would sound dramatically better than the Grado, with my Jades and TT and Onkyo ?

Thanks, Chris

50 minutes ago, Jlegg said:

 

I agree with the above poster. Give yourself some time with the new deck and get a feel for the sound. It is my opinion, though, that you won’t get much out of a better pre-amp right away. Everyone has their own opinions, but I think the cartridge is one of the most important links in the chain. Your new one will most certainly be a huge upgrade from whatever was on your old TT, but it’s still no gem, and certainly not even close to being on par with your speakers. 

 

 

It'll sound slightly different, maybe, but it won’t allow you to hear detail that your stylus is not picking up, if that makes sense. By all means get one because it will be useful to have in the future as you upgrade your cart, but probably isn’t necessary right away.

 

I am new to this forum, not new to midlevel audio fun, some might say entry level, but I think more like midlevel :-) Went through the vintage stage over the last 2 years, bailed out , just too unreliable with constant issues. So current system, recently upgraded, Wharfedale Jade 3 Speakers, Onkyo 656 receiver, chosen due to phono pre-amp, Tidal built in and really easy to use and great price. Current turntable is a Stanton 61, not great, but not horrible either, it will be replaced this coming Friday with a nicer Orbit with the arylic platter, cue and Grado Black.  Now to my question, will a preamp like the Lounge be a truly better sounding option, the Onkyo sounds amazingly good compared to the other 5 receivers we can get out of the stack and the phono section seems ok, we tried my sons Pluto preamp, and it was a little louder but I don't think it sounded any better, so does anyone think its worth $300.00 on this system for something like the Lounge unit?

Thanks for any ideas on this topic.  Chris

6 minutes ago, drds89 said:

There's probably only 10 people here who know who Rick Wakeman is - but you never know - there might be someone who is keeping up with his solo stuff.

Discogs is your friend.

$13.99 sealed

Perfect,  I think that's what I wanted, does not look like they will ever re-master it and release it, at least this one is new and on 180 gram, should be a lot quieter.

Thanks a lot for the link ,  So you don't think there are tons of people listening to these amazingly fun Wakeman Albums,  that's a shame.

Chris

I looked pretty hard on google search to see if they ever re-mastered and released on quality vinyl any of these gems,  but could not find anything.

The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

Journey to the Center of the Earth

I got the originals, but man the background noise and the pops will kill the joy,  any info anyone in the know might have would be really great.

Chris

I was a member of another forum, and only for a few weeks, out of the blue they ended my membership.  Dont know why, did not do anything wrong only had a few post. Tried to rejoin, tossed again, so I was looking for somewhere else to enjoy and found this place.  Brand new as of tonight. Still not sure what happened, glitch or someone hates me that I dont know??

Chris