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initial thoughts on the champion 2


joessportster

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as you all know ive been over a bit of a rollercoaster trying to upgrade my turntable finally ended up with the clearaudio champion level 2, and ordered a origin live silver tone arm(that i was notifyed today they ran out of the endstubs and are awaiting a shipment before they can finish my arm and ship it) so with that i went ahead and used the rega arm off the basis(colonial hoo i hope you dont mind) it was a direct drop in spent about 10 minutes lining the cart back up and now it was time for the music

i had played 2 albums purposely b-4 taking down the basis and packing it up for delivery for the colonial. pink floyd echoes the song wish you were here, and dire straits love over gold the song telegraph road all the settings on the pre amp stayed the exact same and the arm and cartridge were the same (modded rega 300 with incognito wireing and a denon 103, they were aligned using the same paper jig, so for all intent and purpose the only differance was the table itself

let me first say WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!, the aforementioned songs are favs of mine and known quite well or so i thought. the top end was much clearer cymbals could easily be heard on there oun, the piano on telegraph road use to be somewhat muddy now each note is clear and discernable from mark knopflers guitar, bass is also quite a bit deeper i could feel more vibration in the couch as well as my chest at moderately low level volume, on the floyd side again top end and bass were much clearer and the imaging was a lot better, soundstage opened up quite a bit, on high hopes from the floyd album we (the wife and i) heard a bee buzzing around at the beginning of the song and it seemed to be moving around the room( first i recall even hearing the bee)

all i can say is for now i am pretty sure the table was a step in the right direction and i only hope the origin arm makes 1/2 as much differancei will of course post again after i get it and am able to get everything set up properly

im not saying the basis 1400 is a bad table quite the contrary it made as big an impression on me when i upgraded from my thorens 160, but i have to put the champion level 2 a step or 3 up (at least to my ears) the 1400 is a warmer sounding table the champ is more detailed and crisper

Joe

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Joe,

I played around with a few high $$ tonearms on my champion 2 and to be honest.The difference is so subtle that i cant even hear the different..The biggest improvement on my TT is when I upgrade my benz to a shelter 501 cartridge.it is almost like changing speaker..from my denon 103 to the benz glider.hmmm(not worth mentioning)..hope this help

tom

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Joe -

Glad to hear that you're finally set up with the Champion II and happy with the results, especially after the journey to get to this point over the past few weeks. Now it's (mostly) behind you, and you can sit back and enjoy the music. I know you're excited about the final piece of the puzzle (the origin).

Have they told you when to expect the new arm? I plan to be up in DC early next week and I'd love to get the basis while I'm there, but I don't want to leave you without music while you're waiting for the origin to come in.

Chuck

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they said the arm would likely ship early next week, but we know how that is. At any rate i want to deliver your table as agreed, wouldnt be cool to complain about how people dont follow thru on shipping etc... and then hold up your table so i can listen to mine. Not to worry i have a ton of cd's etc..., and im only home tues and wed. Anyway so you can imagine the stuff i have to catch up when i get home. finding time to listen is getting pretty hard indeed

just let me know a day or 2 in advance so i can be sure to have the table with me as i usually end up staying in dc for a couple days at a time, saves on gas and sleep time im getting to old to burn candles on both ends

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