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Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

I had a SOTA Star for almost 15 years (long)

For 13 of those years it had a Sumiko Premier FT4 tonearm and a composite armboard. The FT4 is a fairly decent tonearm. Then I decided I would finally upgrade. I bought an Origin Live Encounter tonearm, a Cosmos armboard, and a SOTA Reflex Clamp. The tonearm and the Cosmos armboard made a HUGE improvement in all sonic aspects, especially soundstage depth, the weight and body of the music, and overall tonal accuracy. The clamp difference was very small, if any, probably due to the vacuum capability of the Star.

The OL Encounter tonearm is an excellent match for the Star, the arm is detailed and transparent, not the Star's best attributes.

However using an Encounter with the Cosmos armboard can make it difficult to get the rear of the tonearm low enough for certain very small cartridges that need the VTA lower than level.

In addition, the Encounter takes careful VTA/VTF set-up. Both because you can hear very small differences with it, and because its an ergonomics pain in the a** in my opinion. It uses a sliding counterweight to adjust VTF in which extremely small movements of the weight result in relatively large VTF changes of 0.15 to 0.2 grams. As a result, VTF adjustment becomes an iterative time-consuming ordeal to dial-in small changes - and you will be able to hear very changes with the Encounter.

I should also mention that I've used MC cartridges for many years with my Star. Its very capable of demonstrating the vastly improved micro-dynamics and detail that a MC provides over a moving iron cartridge. I had a Grado Platinum for a while but did not like it compared to a decent MC, although bass and soundstage width were good. Perhaps a Sumiko Blackbird (2.5mv I think) has enough output to drive the phonostage on your YBA.

I recently decided to upgrade my turntable to an Avid Volvere. Although the Volvere is a fine table, the sonic improvements over the Star are small compared to the improvements I heard from the Encounter & Cosmos armboard upgrade on the Star or those from using a good moving coil cartridge.

Also, make sure your Star's springs are decent prior to getting a Cosmos armboard - its really heavy!


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  • I had a SOTA Star for almost 15 years (long) - Terry P 03/2/0615:54:29 03/2/06 (0)


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