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Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: Music Hall / LP Gear mmf-1 with LP Gear upgrade Turntables by Teresa Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ. |
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209.199.41.201
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 November 09, 2003 at 01:43:19
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for the mmf-1 with LP Gear upgrade
Update 9 months later on my Music Hall mmf-1 with the LP Gear stylus and mat upgrade. I still love this cheap turntable and it's freedom from adjustments and let me tell you a secret, I do not miss my SACDs at all! With all the great Audiophile LPs out there including Speaker's Corners upcoming Mercury Living Presence LPs and with my second format Reel to Reel I do not ever see a Digital format ever being played again in my home.This update will discuss the sound of LPs on the Music Hall mmf-1 with the LP Gear stylus and mat upgrade. As many of you know my last turntable was an expensive SOTA Comet with an Alpha Genesis 1000II Moving Coil cartridge. And on that turntable with a solid state pre-amp I loved Audiophile LPs but had lots of problems with commercial LPs, many sounding absolutely horrible. Well with a cheaper turntable I was hoping Commercial LPs would sound better. On this cheaper turntable going through a tube pre-amp, it does seem to be more forgiving of lesser quality Commercial LPs. However, Audiophile LPs are still the best and 90% of my LPs are of the audiophile variety. Audiophile LPs generally on this turntable have the largest, widest and deepest soundstage, uncanny timbre accuracy, deep powerful bass and very smooth midrange with detailed highs. Most regular Commercial LPs sound phony by comparison, however there are exceptions.
I have bought the Audiophile LP versions of over 50 of my favorite SACDs (Groove Note, Analogue Productions, AudioQuest, Varguard and other recordings) and in every single case the LP version is sonically and musically superior to the excellent SACD versions.
You can go home again I have over 300 LPs and have found, thanks to the Internet 98% of my music want list on LP! I found some recordings I have been looking for more than 30 years: Yma Sumac's Miracles and Ananda Shankar, plus I have found long out of print favorites from Reference Recordings, Wilson Audiophile, Crystal Clear, Sheffield Lab, Classic Records and others. I now have the best Record Collection I have ever had in my whole life. So yes if you hunt really hard you can start over again!
All and all this table is very musical and very enjoyable I know there are much better turntables out there but right now I want to buy LPs!
For Record care I am still using Gruv-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!
Here is a short list of 23 LPs that will absolutely prove the superiority of LPs to any Digital format:
1. ANTILL: Corroboree GINASTERA: Panambi Suite - Everest / Classic SDBR 3003
2. PATRICIA BARBER: Modern Cool - Premonition Records PREM-741-13. HARRY BELAFONTE: At Carnegie Hall (2 LP Set) RCA Living Stereo / Classic LSO 6006
4. BLACK SABBATH: Paranoid - Earmark 41005
5. BRITTEN: Young People's Guide To The Orchestra - Capitol Records / Cisco SP 8373
6. RAY BROWN TRIO: Soular Energy - Pure Audiophile / Concord PA-002 (2)
7. NANCY BRYAN: Lay Me Down - Analogue Productions APO 2002A
8. DÄFOS / Mickey Hart, Airto & Flora Purim (45 RPM) Reference Recordings RR-12
9. DUKE AT TANGLEWOOD / Ellington, Fiedler, Boston Pops - RCA Living Stereo / Classic LSC 2857
10. TERRY EVANS: Puttin' In Down - AudioQuest AQ-LP 1038
11. FIESTA! / Dunn, Dallas Wind Symphony (2 LP Set) - Reference Recordings RR-38
12. MILHAUD: La Creation du Monde; Suite Provencale - RCA Living Stereo / Classic LSC 2423
13. PROFESSOR JOHNSON'S Astounding Sound Show (45 RPM) - Reference Recordings RR-7
14. PROKOFIEV: Love For Three Oranges; Scythian Suite - Mercury Living / Classic SR 90006
15. RESPIGHI: Church Windows / Clark (45 RPM) - Reference Recordings RR-15
16. RESPIGHI: Pines of Rome; Festivals of Rome / Reiner - RCA Living Stereo / Classic LSC 2436
17. RHAPSODIES / Stokowski, RCA Victor Symphony - RCA Living Stereo / Classic LSC 2471
18. BUDDY RICH: Class of '78 (Direct To Disc) - Great American Gramophone GADD-1030
19. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Antar / Abravanel, Utah Symphony - Vanguard / Classic VSC 10060
20. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade / Reiner, Chicago - RCA Living Stereo / Classic LSC 2446
21. THOMSON: The Plow That Broke the Plains; The River - Analogue Productions APC 001
22. WEAVERS: Reunion at Carnegie Hall - 1963 - Analogue Productions APF 005
23. WITCHES BREW / Gibson, New Symphony Orchestra of London - RCA Living Stereo / Classic LSC 2225
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 Reel to Reel Tape Deck 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: 9 Months Other (Power Conditioner etc.): ADCOM ACE-515 Enhancer Power Conditioner Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner
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Topic - REVIEW: Music Hall / LP Gear mmf-1 with LP Gear upgrade Turntables - Teresa 01:43:19 11/9/03 ( 0)