[Audio Empire]

On Wed, 2 Nov 2011 16:12:06 -0700, Arny Krueger wrote
(in article ):

"Harry Lavo" wrote in message
...

Fact of the matter is, I walked into a Best Buy for the first time in a
few
months, and there on a rearranged shelf were three different brands of
turntables. Hardly a sign of dying interest.

Equipment being offered for sale is not the same as good, useful equipment
actually selling in volume.

In this case it is.

Harry, what you are not telling us is the exact nature of those 3 turntable
offerings.

I'll bet money all 3 were sub-$150 USB turntables. There might even be one
or more of those hopelessly cheap Crosley retro-devices. Ceramic cartridges
anybody? Groove-busters all. At least one of them was no doubt less than
$99.

And you'd be wrong. These are the wages of not keeping up. Best Buy (Magnolia
Audio, actually. Those are the audio stores that are part of Best Buy and are
located inside them) sells two brands of turntable: Pro-Ject and McIntosh.
The McIntosh MT-10 costs close to $10,000 while the cheapest table sold by
Magnolia/ Best Buy is the Austrian-made Pro-Ject table Debut III at $399.
Even the latter is a very decent performer with a 12" platter, belt drive, a
decent arm and an OK Sumiko MM cartridge. Project sells tables all the way to
the $5000 Xtension with a 12" arm and servo-controlled motor.

So tell us Harry would you actually recommend that an audiophile buy *any*
of them? Would you replace your current vinyl playback system with any of
them?

I'll bet he would. I wouldn't mind having a Project RM9.2 ($2500) or a
RM-10.1 ($3499), or the aforementioned $5000 Xtension. Not to mention the
McIntosh MT-10. Yes, I'd be OK giving up my J.A. Michelle Orb S.E. for one of
these.

Probably not so much.

Yeah, pretty much

Probably just another example of a false impression created by not telling
the relevant facts.

Just like the false impression you are creating here by apparently not
knowing the relevant facts.