As a lady audiophile just getting into HiFi I love your videos. You put incredible effort into production and it is clearly a creative process for you. Well done - it's been very informative and I look forward to more creative from you. Keep doing it as you do as you clearly are apart from all the rest.
It’s always great to hear that ladies are getting into audiophile gears ⚙️. Simon is great 👍 but if you’re interested there are other reviewers whom I personally admire beside Simon’s channel. Steve Gutenberg, John Darko, Andrew Robinson…
@@hamidrezahabibi8111the only other audio reviewer is A British Audiophile, even though he raved about the Q Acoustics M20 which I bought based on his recommendation but turned out to be extremely mediocre. The rest are little more than shills for audio brands.
Only just this vid for some strange reason as I’ve binge watched most of yours? Oddly enough I got seriously ill early winter and decided to cheer myself up with an audiophile entry turntable. You did not do vinyl but I listened to the other reviewers who do - like Darko and Robinson plus what hi fi etc. Took a punt on a Pro ject X1 in part because of a Robinson review on your dec. And the hype on your dec meant the X1 was losing a lot of love (as well as a balanced upgrade X1 is out) so got my dec nearly new demo at about half price. Thus your YT vid is most illuminating (as usual) and I will follow your journey with keenness. My system is part home cinema so a vg Yamaha receiver and Panasonic Blueray/CD with YAPO; Paul Barton Synchrony stand mounts (amazing); Eversolo stream Dac; Mofi phono. Vinyl does different in my system - sounds more musical. As a result just beginning to get sucked down into the ‘vinyl rabbit hole’ …….
Thanks Simon, another masterclass. I'm on the verge of getting back into vinyl after a break of 20 years & swearing "never again!" Just wondering how my records, now sitting in the attic, will sound having been so badly abused during my teenage years. Good luck with your journey.
Yes I thought about that Tony. Prob not the best with all the camera set ups and things being moved a lot for this vid as you can imagine. I need to invest in a stylus brush and some form of cleaning system too I think :)
I mainly listen to old Reggae, ska & Soul 45s Tony and you'd be hard pressed to get anything considered good. Most Reggae from Jamaica is hand pressed and it depends on how much herb the pressing mans had that day and how good the record is. I love it, brings back memories when that crackle starts.
very much like my debut pro. bit fiddly to set up but once running its a joy to listen to vinyl. i have many cd and years of vinyl enjoy simon its all music to soothe the soul great viseo cheers
Hi Simon. Nice to see you do a video on a TT and vinyl. As a person who grew up listening to music this way, I have gone the other way, from just vinyl, then adding CD's, then just listening to CD's, to just streaming now. It's mainly due to reducing clutter and ease of use, by pressing a button on my phone and choosing a track or album from my chair. I think age and laziness has a lot to do with it 😂. Tubular Bells 2 is my personal favourite of the Bells series and Nick Drakes album is a nice one also. That Pro-Ject TT is very good for the money. Enjoy your listening and thanks for sharing. 👌
Thanks Steve, I think I’m with you on the convenience of digital but this experience was a welcome change and if I don’t go crazy on buying vinyl in the future I can still appreciate what it gives with the right album or just albums not on streaming services / cd.
Great to see you getting into Vinyl Simon - enjoy. It definitely gives you a far greater connection to the music/artist than any other format and sounds better a lot of the time too. Nice phonostage - which will easily see you through several turntable and cartridge upgrades. I hope you add cartridge and phonostage reviews to your channel. I recommend you try a Nagoaka MP-150 or 200, it's a moving iron (permalloy) design which outputs at same level as MM. They give you the best of both worlds between MM and MC. Finally, really good explanations and graphics in your video - great job.
I recently got back into vinyl and invested considerable funds into a vinyl rig and while I value its sonic presentation, I would characterize it as simply different than my digital rig rather than "a lot better". Regarding hifi gear assessments, absolute statements about what is "best" are in reality 99% subjective opinions at best.
@@michaelmityok1001 cannot agree more...and there are tons of different vinyl systems/components/carts/preamps/pressings so we can talk about one unique voice of vinyl experience...while listening records many times i am asking myself, what's the big deal about it...vinyl too can sound flat, harsh, uninvolving and boring...its not all roses...
@@michaelmityok1001 Agree too. Vinyl sounds better after all our hearing ( or what’s left of it ) isn’t in digital. You can’t leave streaming collections to your kids and some vinyl doesn’t lose any value especially genres like Soul music.
@@michaelmityok1001 I'm kinda with you Michael. It isn't, and I stress so far as my view may change with different cartridges, something to replace the clarity and dynamic range of digital, but I think the point about getting into it for album availability is all important because it cuts to the core of why people buy hifi. Music. Certainly on this system, if you aren't fussed about getting content only available on vinyl, then you can get similar quality music on a cheaper digital playback chain with a great DAC and cheap streamer. And that summarises my own view on Vinyl so far, being honest, and why this set up had to get a good review because somebody out there wants it all for the albums they can't get on streaming services (or an existing collection etc)
How are you still liking the Hegel? I am considering the Hegel, Goldmote ph10 or the moon 310lp. So far leaning to Hegel but curious on others experiences
i thought i could XLR my way out of the hiss for JBL 305p's because everyone says they have an annoying hiss. but amir at ASR told me i couldnt. *shrugs
Nice video as always Simon. I've been trying the Classic Audio Spartan 5 phono stage from Michael Fidler. It's a revelation for the money and has completely got rid of all my grounding woes. Worth a look if you get a chance mate.
Can you please comment on what you think of the sound signature of the Pick-it-Pro... In my set up there is some sibilance in the vocals and a hardness in the highs... What is your experience?
Hi Daniel. Did you not pick up that how would I know what it’s signature is in comparison when I have nothing to compare and when I made the comment about a comparative review
Has it been run-in for many hours? I have 2m blue on a Project x2 and it probably has 50+ hours on it and sounds cleaner and smoother than when new. It's a decent entry level cartridge, so if you have higher end amp/speakers you could be hearing its limitations. Hope that helps mate
I'm not asking for a comparison to anything.. I'm asking, in your experience what you think it sounds. I too have not heard anything else but the pick-it-pro. But I can tell it's not playing right in my set up.
@@danieldionaldo6933 But how can I know what the sound signature of the cartridge is when there is a phono stage in the step too and whether it is bright or not would come down to other components. People seem to think that I can thrash out all these things in simple one liners. It's just not possible. That's why I ask for small remuneration for advice because also you've got all the video free my attitude is quid pro quo
never seen a good Pro-Ject turntable all sound very bad till around 1.000€ and it´s cartridge only if buying a good one will give a similar sound compared to old and very good turntables mainly from the 70´s but i bought a thorens turntable in the 90´s that was their best turntable at the time with old Ortofon cartridge and stylus mc type it is very good ,today one spends a lot of money and the stylus become a lot litle and having 1/5 of the hours of use, hegel if cheap is far from being a good integrated amplifier and very picky to find a set of speakers that might reproduce a aceptable quality of sound, one can find in 2nd hand cheaper modern material, for one reason people want to get rid of them, they are basically trash, this new concept of begginers systems are to make people never want to buy a turntable again , and i in the 80´s used to make fun of the turntables built all in plastic at least if well installed they had good sound which doesn´t happen today wich is sad, one can buy in second hand material from the 70´s even the cheapest ones are high quality sounding and well built ,only the speakers can be bought new and give a clean and almost perfect sound to 70´s gear if in good condition ,which is not dificult to find, i bought recentelly to a friend a SX-430 from 79 with a technics turntable ,76 model the DD SL-3100 with original cartridge and stylus normally the most used since 76 270C or 207C with EPS-270EDn stylus which there are lot´s being sold but not a usable stylus , i tried a brand who was building them good but the price is almost 100€ but also find ones for 60€ that have a bigger plastic box who are perfect ,i worked for many years in a laboratory with magnifying glasses that can be conected to a computer instead of watching them directelly through the binocules and watch a styuls like if it were 2 meters high, this from Nikon ,are the same devices seen on tv while watching rocks that were retrieved in Mars, if found some working and never restored SB-F3 from technics it will sound perfect but there are more recent speakers that are very good also, i bought some new cartridges that don´t match the sound of the ones i was using but are ok like the Grado prestige III gold they do have a good frequency response but dynamics are not that good also a litle expensier the ortofon cadenza black S , the Nagaoka MP-300 and 500 are also very nice ,the "Mblack LVT edition also sounds good but this in very good systems and very good turntables that today if sold new they would cost all from 5.000€ and much more, Nagaoka built cartridges and stylus for technics for a lot of years the one i refer earlier was one of them, technics even released a few years ago a SL-1000 something that costed more than 5.000€ and they asked nagaoka to built a cartridge and stylus tob this turntable ,here on youtube when showin g this turntable the first thing i notice is having installed a 2Mblack cartridge from Ortofon ,this shows how this guys critising this or that have not a clue about hi-fi componets ,i say this because they installing a 2Mblack it stays with a lesser good sound ,the nagaoka built for it it´s several times better allthough the Ortofon is a aceptable cartridge takin`in account that most of seen today are in reality garbage, to end a friend of mine from the netherlands and other from germany came to live near me in south interior of Portugal because it´s sunny all year around, grey days are to me a very nice day ,for them it´s the reverse but one of them being filphy rich as all the best turntables known to men but ,"i´m going to buy a Pro-Ject " he said ,well when returning from germany after christmas and the new year ,he wanted me to see his pro-ject and i went to his home , the surprise was seeing a looking good Pro-Ject with a sound very cliose to the best turntables made but then he explains that between the turntable itself and the cartridge he spent 14.000€ ,well that´s how much youn have to pay to have a good sounding pro-ject, but with almost 200€ you can also buy a 70´s technics working perfectelly ,normally all direct drive with the same sound quality, i could say that i´m using now a toshiba turntable and a hitachi pre and power amplifier with some restored celestion ditton from the 1970 catalog with a tascam reel deck and a teac deck bought in 79 , i don´t know how many thousands of €´s one had to spend today to match it´s quality of sound. Today the goal is stealing from people is what i´ve watched for the last 7 years and here on youtube hi-fi relatecd videos most of them are not especialized in hi-fi but just saying good things of bad material maybe they never seen nothing good but why are they watched by the millions if not having a notion of what is good sound, only garbage
a subplatter made of aluminium like this on the ''debut pro s'' b u t at no extra cost [as is the company's policy ] given that this turntable is already costly enough
It’s pretty rigid. I don’t think the quality of this turntable is under par at all, it’s very well made and sturdy. As you’d expect for an Austrian designed company and the price is about right
As a lady audiophile just getting into HiFi I love your videos. You put incredible effort into production and it is clearly a creative process for you. Well done - it's been very informative and I look forward to more creative from you. Keep doing it as you do as you clearly are apart from all the rest.
It’s always great to hear that ladies are getting into audiophile gears ⚙️. Simon is great 👍 but if you’re interested there are other reviewers whom I personally admire beside Simon’s channel. Steve Gutenberg, John Darko, Andrew Robinson…
That’s great to hear Karen as hifi tends to be male dominated and if my videos can reach more ladies I think that’s fantastic for the industry
@@hamidrezahabibi8111the only other audio reviewer is A British Audiophile, even though he raved about the Q Acoustics M20 which I bought based on his recommendation but turned out to be extremely mediocre. The rest are little more than shills for audio brands.
Lady audiophile? 😂😂😂
@skunk12 sexism?
A fantastic guide for Turntable newbies. It's just great to see your journey into vinyl.
Only just this vid for some strange reason as I’ve binge watched most of yours?
Oddly enough I got seriously ill early winter and decided to cheer myself up with an audiophile entry turntable. You did not do vinyl but I listened to the other reviewers who do - like Darko and Robinson plus what hi fi etc. Took a punt on a Pro ject X1 in part because of a Robinson review on your dec. And the hype on your dec meant the X1 was losing a lot of love (as well as a balanced upgrade X1 is out) so got my dec nearly new demo at about half price.
Thus your YT vid is most illuminating (as usual) and I will follow your journey with keenness.
My system is part home cinema so a vg Yamaha receiver and Panasonic Blueray/CD with YAPO; Paul Barton Synchrony stand mounts (amazing); Eversolo stream Dac; Mofi phono. Vinyl does different in my system - sounds more musical. As a result just beginning to get sucked down into the ‘vinyl rabbit hole’ …….
Thanks Simon, another masterclass. I'm on the verge of getting back into vinyl after a break of 20 years & swearing "never again!" Just wondering how my records, now sitting in the attic, will sound having been so badly abused during my teenage years. Good luck with your journey.
1. Welcome to the analog hi-fi rabbit hole.
2. Say goodbye to your hard-earned money.
3. I love your channel. 🙃
Agreed. I've spent £300 this week on 2 records.....
Thank you for this level of detail, really fun listening to this
I think an MC with that would be amazing. Look forward to hearing your update on this
It's about time, Simon. Great review!
As always great production and very clear description of a rather jargon laden topic. Thanks Simon
Fab Job Simon ! detailed presentation ,the background music... Keep Going 👌
Looking forward to this one. Good vinyl requires clean records to sound great IMO. Let us know how you get on when you go mc.
Yes I thought about that Tony. Prob not the best with all the camera set ups and things being moved a lot for this vid as you can imagine. I need to invest in a stylus brush and some form of cleaning system too I think :)
👋 GREAT TO SEE YOU AGAIN SIMON 🤗 and it’s VERY IMPORTANT TO EXPLAIN THE DETAILS TO THE NEW ONES IN THE HOBBY / addiction 😂💚💚💚
I mainly listen to old Reggae, ska & Soul 45s Tony and you'd be hard pressed to get anything considered good. Most Reggae from Jamaica is hand pressed and it depends on how much herb the pressing mans had that day and how good the record is. I love it, brings back memories when that crackle starts.
Thanks this is a really helpful and beautifully thought through video. I love vinyl for the same reasons as you.
Beautifully put-together, as usual -- thanks and cheers
Wonderful review, as always!
Bravo Simon, this was a spot on review/how to. Glad to see you back at it, keep up the hard work
very much like my debut pro. bit fiddly to set up but once running its a joy to listen to vinyl. i have many cd and years of vinyl enjoy simon its all music to soothe the soul great viseo cheers
Yes, welcome back! And welcome in the vinyl works as well! It’s fun isn’t it? Hmm, a Board of Canada record, cool!
Hi Simon. Nice to see you do a video on a TT and vinyl. As a person who grew up listening to music this way, I have gone the other way, from just vinyl, then adding CD's, then just listening to CD's, to just streaming now. It's mainly due to reducing clutter and ease of use, by pressing a button on my phone and choosing a track or album from my chair. I think age and laziness has a lot to do with it 😂. Tubular Bells 2 is my personal favourite of the Bells series and Nick Drakes album is a nice one also. That Pro-Ject TT is very good for the money. Enjoy your listening and thanks for sharing. 👌
Thanks Steve, I think I’m with you on the convenience of digital but this experience was a welcome change and if I don’t go crazy on buying vinyl in the future I can still appreciate what it gives with the right album or just albums not on streaming services / cd.
Wonderful filmic quality to the video as always, bravo Simon!
Thanks Michael
What a fantastic video! Learnt a lot there ! Many thanks Simon 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Great to see you getting into Vinyl Simon - enjoy. It definitely gives you a far greater connection to the music/artist than any other format and sounds better a lot of the time too. Nice phonostage - which will easily see you through several turntable and cartridge upgrades. I hope you add cartridge and phonostage reviews to your channel. I recommend you try a Nagoaka MP-150 or 200, it's a moving iron (permalloy) design which outputs at same level as MM. They give you the best of both worlds between MM and MC. Finally, really good explanations and graphics in your video - great job.
Thanks very much for the nice comments, I’ll definitely look that cartridge up. 😀🎼
I recently got back into vinyl and invested considerable funds into a vinyl rig and while I value its sonic presentation, I would characterize it as simply different than my digital rig rather than "a lot better". Regarding hifi gear assessments, absolute statements about what is "best" are in reality 99% subjective opinions at best.
@@michaelmityok1001 cannot agree more...and there are tons of different vinyl systems/components/carts/preamps/pressings so we can talk about one unique voice of vinyl experience...while listening records many times i am asking myself, what's the big deal about it...vinyl too can sound flat, harsh, uninvolving and boring...its not all roses...
@@michaelmityok1001 Agree too. Vinyl sounds better after all our hearing ( or what’s left of it ) isn’t in digital. You can’t leave streaming collections to your kids and some vinyl doesn’t lose any value especially genres like Soul music.
@@michaelmityok1001 I'm kinda with you Michael. It isn't, and I stress so far as my view may change with different cartridges, something to replace the clarity and dynamic range of digital, but I think the point about getting into it for album availability is all important because it cuts to the core of why people buy hifi. Music. Certainly on this system, if you aren't fussed about getting content only available on vinyl, then you can get similar quality music on a cheaper digital playback chain with a great DAC and cheap streamer. And that summarises my own view on Vinyl so far, being honest, and why this set up had to get a good review because somebody out there wants it all for the albums they can't get on streaming services (or an existing collection etc)
How are you still liking the Hegel? I am considering the Hegel, Goldmote ph10 or the moon 310lp. So far leaning to Hegel but curious on others experiences
Long time no see Simon🫵✨💎
Simon is an ace communicator who can make anything interesting and informative. Fantastic stuff as usual.
i thought i could XLR my way out of the hiss for JBL 305p's because everyone says they have an annoying hiss. but amir at ASR told me i couldnt. *shrugs
Damn I sure hope these guys are paying for this!
Nice video as always Simon. I've been trying the Classic Audio Spartan 5 phono stage from Michael Fidler. It's a revelation for the money and has completely got rid of all my grounding woes. Worth a look if you get a chance mate.
Thanks for sharing Stephen 😀🎼
Can you please comment on what you think of the sound signature of the Pick-it-Pro... In my set up there is some sibilance in the vocals and a hardness in the highs... What is your experience?
Hi Daniel. Did you not pick up that how would I know what it’s signature is in comparison when I have nothing to compare and when I made the comment about a comparative review
Has it been run-in for many hours? I have 2m blue on a Project x2 and it probably has 50+ hours on it and sounds cleaner and smoother than when new.
It's a decent entry level cartridge, so if you have higher end amp/speakers you could be hearing its limitations.
Hope that helps mate
I'm not asking for a comparison to anything.. I'm asking, in your experience what you think it sounds. I too have not heard anything else but the pick-it-pro. But I can tell it's not playing right in my set up.
@@danieldionaldo6933 But how can I know what the sound signature of the cartridge is when there is a phono stage in the step too and whether it is bright or not would come down to other components. People seem to think that I can thrash out all these things in simple one liners. It's just not possible. That's why I ask for small remuneration for advice because also you've got all the video free my attitude is quid pro quo
@@danieldionaldo6933 Also I've no idea what your system is....and you can see with lots of chats I just dont have the time...
Welcome to the money pit, that is vinyl :-)
Never mind all the technical stuff,buy a Rega plug and play and just enjoy the music.
You need to understand some tech stuff to know what to buy
never seen a good Pro-Ject turntable all sound very bad till around 1.000€ and it´s cartridge only if buying a good one will give a similar sound compared to old and very good turntables mainly from the 70´s but i bought a thorens turntable in the 90´s that was their best turntable at the time with old Ortofon cartridge and stylus mc type it is very good ,today one spends a lot of money and the stylus become a lot litle and having 1/5 of the hours of use, hegel if cheap is far from being a good integrated amplifier and very picky to find a set of speakers that might reproduce a aceptable quality of sound, one can find in 2nd hand cheaper modern material, for one reason people want to get rid of them, they are basically trash, this new concept of begginers systems are to make people never want to buy a turntable again , and i in the 80´s used to make fun of the turntables built all in plastic at least if well installed they had good sound which doesn´t happen today wich is sad, one can buy in second hand material from the 70´s even the cheapest ones are high quality sounding and well built ,only the speakers can be bought new and give a clean and almost perfect sound to 70´s gear if in good condition ,which is not dificult to find, i bought recentelly to a friend a SX-430 from 79 with a technics turntable ,76 model the DD SL-3100 with original cartridge and stylus normally the most used since 76 270C or 207C with EPS-270EDn stylus which there are lot´s being sold but not a usable stylus , i tried a brand who was building them good but the price is almost 100€ but also find ones for 60€ that have a bigger plastic box who are perfect ,i worked for many years in a laboratory with magnifying glasses that can be conected to a computer instead of watching them directelly through the binocules and watch a styuls like if it were 2 meters high, this from Nikon ,are the same devices seen on tv while watching rocks that were retrieved in Mars, if found some working and never restored SB-F3 from technics it will sound perfect but there are more recent speakers that are very good also, i bought some new cartridges that don´t match the sound of the ones i was using but are ok like the Grado prestige III gold they do have a good frequency response but dynamics are not that good also a litle expensier the ortofon cadenza black S , the Nagaoka MP-300 and 500 are also very nice ,the "Mblack LVT edition also sounds good but this in very good systems and very good turntables that today if sold new they would cost all from 5.000€ and much more, Nagaoka built cartridges and stylus for technics for a lot of years the one i refer earlier was one of them, technics even released a few years ago a SL-1000 something that costed more than 5.000€ and they asked nagaoka to built a cartridge and stylus tob this turntable ,here on youtube when showin g this turntable the first thing i notice is having installed a 2Mblack cartridge from Ortofon ,this shows how this guys critising this or that have not a clue about hi-fi componets ,i say this because they installing a 2Mblack it stays with a lesser good sound ,the nagaoka built for it it´s several times better allthough the Ortofon is a aceptable cartridge takin`in account that most of seen today are in reality garbage, to end a friend of mine from the netherlands and other from germany came to live near me in south interior of Portugal because it´s sunny all year around, grey days are to me a very nice day ,for them it´s the reverse but one of them being filphy rich as all the best turntables known to men but ,"i´m going to buy a Pro-Ject " he said ,well when returning from germany after christmas and the new year ,he wanted me to see his pro-ject and i went to his home , the surprise was seeing a looking good Pro-Ject with a sound very cliose to the best turntables made but then he explains that between the turntable itself and the cartridge he spent 14.000€ ,well that´s how much youn have to pay to have a good sounding pro-ject, but with almost 200€ you can also buy a 70´s technics working perfectelly ,normally all direct drive with the same sound quality, i could say that i´m using now a toshiba turntable and a hitachi pre and power amplifier with some restored celestion ditton from the 1970 catalog with a tascam reel deck and a teac deck bought in 79 , i don´t know how many thousands of €´s one had to spend today to match it´s quality of sound. Today the goal is stealing from people is what i´ve watched for the last 7 years and here on youtube hi-fi relatecd videos most of them are not especialized in hi-fi but just saying good things of bad material maybe they never seen nothing good but why are they watched by the millions if not having a notion of what is good sound, only garbage
plastic subplatter at this price point ? simply unacceptable
What would be more rigid and as unresonant ?
a subplatter made of aluminium like this on the ''debut pro s'' b u t at no extra cost [as is the company's policy ] given that this turntable is already costly enough
It’s pretty rigid. I don’t think the quality of this turntable is under par at all, it’s very well made and sturdy. As you’d expect for an Austrian designed company and the price is about right