[Robert Orban]

In article ,
says...


Goldmund Reference II. Anyone heard one in optimal conditions - i.e.
room, amp, speakers, audiophile quality record. Does it have any
legitimate sonic superiority over far less pricey units or is it
purely in the "have it because I can" category?

If not, what turntable/tonearm/cartridge do you feel represents the
best possible performance, anything beyond which is just pointlessly
throwing money around?

There's an old saw -- which might or might not be true -- that the last 10%
of improvements represent 90% of the price. The "law of diminishing
returns", if you like.

Your question is essentially unanswerable, because it depends on highly
subjective judgements... Can you hear a difference, and if so, how much does
it mean to you?

I have a Well-Tempered arm and table. They aren't cheap, but their design is
both brilliant and simple. My gut feeling is that it would be difficult to
significantly improve LP playback much beyond what these provide. Of course,
I might be wrong -- there might be "decks" that cost 1/5 as much, but sound
comparably good, or $100K 'tables that are noticeably superior. Who knows?

Interesting...I have exactly the same arm and table, which I used mostly for
LP-to-CD transfers. Cartridge is a Shure V15VxMR because I feel that tracking
is everything -- I can tweak any other parameter in software after I've
digitized the signal, but if the cartridge introduced nonlinear distortion in
the original playback, then there's nothing to be done.