Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: Music Hall / LP Gear mmf-1 with LP Gear upgrade Turntables by Teresa

Model:	mmf-1 with LP Gear upgrade
Category:	Turntables
Suggested Retail Price:	$249.99
Description:	Maunal Belt Drive Turntable factory adjusted for the Music Hall Magic cartridge with the LP Gear Upgrade Rx9 stylus and Z Mat.
Manufacturer URL:	Music Hall / LP Gear
Manufacturer URL:	Music Hall / LP Gear

Review by Teresa ( A ) on August 31, 2003 at 02:19:17
IP Address: 65.178.73.83

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The Music Hall mmf-1 was originally purchased as my Sony DVP-S9000ES SACD player was in and out of the shop for over 3 months and I found I couldn't live without recorded music. I play Guitar but that wasn't enough.
I was intrigued by the mmf-1 as it has no adjustments at all and was cheap enough that I didn't think it would put my SACDs to shame, well I was wrong LPs turned out to be more musical and enjoyable than SACD. So with my SACD player in the shop I wondered into Recycled Records looking through LPs and I found about 60 of my favorite audiophile and non-audiophile records of all time, so I said what the hell and bought them went home got on the Internet and ordered the MMF-1 for 179.95 total from Elusive Disc (10% discount and free shipping). Also you all know I hate all the care and feeding of LPs, well this simple turntable is easy! Set up took 10 minutes, there is NOTHING to adjust, no VTA, not even tracking force. The MMF-1 was designed for the Magic cartridge. The sound was a little bright in the beginning, the sound is gets fuller and the bass deeper within a few weeks however the sibilance never totally disappeared. Then I discovered the LP Gear Upgrade which includes the Rx9 stylus and Z Mat. I purchased these items for 58.84 including shipping making my total cost: 238.79. The Retail price of the mmf-1 has increased to 249.95 shortly after I bought it, however LP Gear is offering their upgrade for free if you buy the turntable from them so you can buy it with the upgrade for 249.95.
How does the LP Gear upgrade sound? With my tubed pre-amp through my Sennheiser HD-580 headphones the sound is pure magic. Through my Adcom Power Amp and Infinity Reference Kappa 7 Speakers the sound stage is very deep and wide, deep bass, very smooth midrange with detailed highs, and sibilance is mostly gone. All and all very musical and very enjoyable with slightly less magic maybe due to the power amp being Solid State. In most performance areas LPs on this turntable are superior to SACDs, SACDs from DSD or Super Analog masters are quieter and the human voice is projected and rounded just like being in the presence of a live singer, and the shape of the instruments are better defined on these SACDs, possibly a better turntable or cartridge would surpass SACDs in these areas. However, LPs on this table are very close even in these areas (instrument shape and realistic voice tone with sibilance intruding rarely), but it terms of the overall soundstage, the warmth of the bass, the shimmer and utter beauty of the high strings and the gorgeous midrange LPs on this cheap turntable blow SACDs totally away and I have replaced about 50 recordings (so far) that I had on SACD with their Audiophile LP versions as I find that LPs are more musically satisfying than SACDs. SACDs are way better than CDs and they sound almost analog like but they have are not yet equal even entry level audiophile LP playback.
For Record care I am using Grave-Glide before first play to clean and remove static, AudioQuest carbon fiber record brush to clean before playing each side and the Onzow Zero-Dust for stylus cleaning.
Playing records is super easy on this table as you never have to make any adjustments just clean the record and stylus and play music!

Product Weakness: No adjustments and cartridge not upgradable.
Product Strengths: No adjustments. Magic Cartridge tracks at 1.7 grams. Very musical even stock, sibilance nearly eliminated with LP Gear upgrade.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	ADCOM GFA-555II High Current Power Amplifier - 200 watts per channel (350 Watts into my 4 ohm Infinity speakers)
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	AMC CVT 1030 Vacuum Tube Pre-Amplififer (Class A valve)
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	AKAI GX-630DB 7
Speakers:	INFINITY Reference Standard 7 Kappa Floor Standing Speakers (Pair)
Cables/Interconnects:	Monster Cable Powerline 2 Plus (looks like garden hose) Interconnects: Monster Cable & AudioQuest Turquoise
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Symphonic Classical, Classic Jazz, Classic Rock both Audiophile and non-Audiophile selections
Time Period/Length of Audition:	7 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	ADCOM ACE-515 Enhancer Power Conditioner
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	No adjustments and cartridge not upgradable.
Product Strengths:	No adjustments. Magic Cartridge tracks at 1.7 grams. Very musical even stock, sibilance nearly eliminated with LP Gear upgrade.