Our most recent meeting: February 18 we were visited by representatives Patrick, Ken and Matt from The Needle Doctor, a local brick and mortar, and international online resource for turntables and other audio gear since 1979. A Rogue Audio Pharaoh Integrated Amp was used for amplification. The Pharaoh has a tube (12AX7) line stage and a Class D output of 175Watts into 8 ohms and 350W into 4 ohms. ($3,495) A Rogue Audio Triton Phono Preamp connected the turntables to the integrated amp. The Triton has four different gain settings, eight resistive loading options, and four capacitance settings. There were three turntable setups (played from right to left in the demonstration)  Rega RP8 Turntable with an Exact 2 cartridge. Glass platter and variable speed synchronous drive. (package $3,490) Clearaudio Concept Turntable, Verify Tonearm and Concept MC cartridge (package $2,200) AudioTechnica LP120USB Turntable/Tonearm along with AT95E cartridge. This turntable has a switchable phono preamp for newer equipment and also is USB enabled for quality rips to a computer. (MSRP ~$429, it is currently (Feb 19) on sale for $299) |