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WAX WHAT?

2/4/2016

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  Obviously for some of you who've visited the Haven or this site you might rightly assume that if one is just starting out in the hobby I may not have anything for you.  Granted I don't have a pair of speakers for $200, a receiver or integrated amp under $500, yet there are affordable entry level items here. Take for instance the Vandersteen Model 1's, one of the great $1000 speakers, coupled with the very sweet sounding Arcam A19 integrated with built in phono section at $900. Tie all this together with Audioquest Type 4 speaker cable, the People's Cable, as I like to call it - $299/8' pr- and Red River or Yukon interconnects at $69 and $199, and you've got quite a system. 
Yet I hear you ask, what about sources? Something has to give a signal, and your turntables and cd players are out of my league or partner's expenditure acceptability. 

Well well, belay that notion! Look no farther than a new turntable I am most proud to be showing in your area for the first time, the new Wax Engine turntable/arm from Consonance. Using an aluminum T type chassis, it features a 9" aluminum arm tube, three adjustable feet for easy leveling, and sports music-making unheard of in its price range of $995. Beats the pants off a Rega RP8, so folks, we're talking a major new contender for affordability here.  Do come have a listen. 

  And to add to the entry level list, there's also a very new moving magnet (MM) cartridge, brought to you by the folks at Well Tempered Lab, the TLC. Yes, now we have the TLC brought to you by the WTL. Now all we need to do is get the LGBT crowd in and we can play Scrabble. Like the Wax Engine, this cartridge, at $550, will make one shake their heads at how crazy good it all is. I sit there listening, and flashback to all the absolutely horrible early tables/cartridges that I and my friends had when starting out. Of course they were all a bit cheaper, some of us only had part time jobs, yet put these pieces back to late 70's early 80's prices and you know what I mean.  So for $1545, you have a table and cartridge that you'll clearly want to come home and listen to, or if you're just starting out save up for. That last part I highly recommend. It's far better to start yourself out on quality at the source than use so much of the widely distributed crap tables and crappier cartridges that are out there. It's one area of the vinyl rebirth that isn't addressed enough. USB tables and their ilk are dreadful devices, and it's a shame to see everyone buying records yet going home and playing them on those contraptions. Most of us of a certain age started out drinking beer that was swill. We made it to homebrew and then finally to craft beers. Hopefully that trend will happen with analog as well.
 You're welcome to bring in any table to compare against the Wax Engine. Yet beware, be prepared to beg, borrow, or steal the funds to bring this table home. Of course no stealing! Do aluminum cans still bring anything? 
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