Dave from vinyl nirvana is a few towns over from me so naturally I picked up a few thorens from him over the year. He is great to work with so big shout out for mentioning him.

It's kinda funny how many people out there saying "oh, the new Rhino BLOWS AWAY the OG US pressing AND the Vertigo!" Yeah, uh, I don't think so. If I didn't already have a clean OG, I would have bought it. I had it in my cart, listened to what I already had, and said "nah, I don't need it". Thank you for an honest opinion.

I just was playing this Black Sabbath album on my Yamaha turntable and 1983 Yamaha receiver and Polk monitor 5 speakers. Awesome

Thank you for all the great vids appreciate you good work

Awesome system man, love seeing you enjoy it!😊

Tim, i waited 12 weeks to get my Tavish Vintage phono stage and it was well worth the wait. It was a significant upgrade from my Project 2 Box Tube phono stage. Yes, Tavish is a "mom and pop" operation, but with direct sales to their customers, I feel you get more value for your money. Joe

You should move your stereo to the right to get your left speaker away from the side wall.

Awesome editions! That phono preamp seems real nice. It uses 12AX7x2 and 12AU7x1, which are very common tubes and easily available. There are even new tubes being made. I use Apps Ray Reserve in my headphone/preamp and love it! (That's a 6SN7, but they make your tubes, too) The great thing about tube rolling is you can transform the dimensionality, warmth, and clarity to your delight! There are plenty of sites that sell new and NOS tubes.

I love those Rhino glossy jackets.

Nice one Tim. Interesting tweaks discussion. I think the speaker raisers will make a good difference, I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts. My guess would be things will sound tighter.

Mine should be here tomorrow I looking for to spinning it . Awesome Black Sabbath comparisons from your copies . Love your system upgrades Tim. I’m thinking about upgrading to tubes and phono stage .

Oh man you're talking about everything I have... I have Klipsch Forte 1's they have the crites crossovers which I modified with some good parts that people will say might not make a difference but I love it. I also braced the cabinets and lined the cabinets with gr research no rez... Very nice improvements.

Excellent review professor! I too tried out a phono pre-amp for my system and started simple with a Schiit Mani 2. What a difference! My TT has xlr out so next upgrade is a tube / xlr i/o pre-amp (many choices). Still waiting on shipping email from Rhino for Devo 😡

Love your system. Cormwalls with McIntosh is a great combo! I have two Mac setups. Just love them.

I have a vinyl nirvana TD 125 with the Sorane tonearm, and a Hana SL cart. Amazing!

My thoughts on this as well, and I’ve yet to get mine. I too have a VG+ green label and apart from a bit of surface noise, it sounds amazing.

I recently went through a phono stage search to upgrade my Schitt Mani II and went with an Avid Pulsus, it really makes my LOMC sing.

I finally bought a tube amplifier for my Klipsch La Scalas and love it

Nice system Tim. Happy to see that you're exploring tubes. Yes, you will experience a more holographic soundstage. I waited a year and nine months for my Decware amp and the wait was worth every minute. New old stock would be a good place to start but the prices for popular NOS tubes can get expensive. I hate to recommend tubes being that all listening rooms and tastes are different. I think you'll be addicted to the tube sound especially with the type of music you listen to, that I'm certain of.

Nice tweaks, Tim! I think the new phono stage is a great choice! Looks like Steve Westman just dropped a Black Sabbath shootout- the new Rhino release, the US OG Green Label and a Vertigo. Haven't seen it yet, but I'm interested to hear his take on it.

Hey Tim, Congrats on your new MM tube phono stage and TT mat. I’ve had my eye on Thorens TTs ever since you got it via the Steve Hoffman forums. Thanks for mentioning the model number too. Maybe in the future I would recommend that you try a high output moving coil (HOMC) to go with your new phono stage. There are a number of carts including the Dynavector 10x5. I have one and it’s a well reviewed cart. That way you can try your luck with a moving coil cart. Tube phono stages are great. Again, congrats on your gear upgrades and another fine vid.

Warner Green, Warner Palm tree, UK NEMS, Vertigo 2000's reissue. All good here. Funny, my NM OG Green was around $40 too.

Another great video, Tim. Hey, being a fellow native Michigander, when are you going to do a deep dive on Bob Seger? Beautiful Loser, Live Bullet, Nightmoves, all classics and the latter two have been remastered/reissued. Just a thought. Thanks as always.

I have the Hagerman Trumpet MC, and it's amazing. Like you I found it hard to articulate. It replaced the $500 mofy unit. And it's not that it was better in any one range there was just this cohesive musicality to it, that really drew me in.

As in all these shootouts the OG is likely to be 'truer' to the master tape and therefore sound 'better' (however that's defined), because audio tape (like film stock) is not a stable medium. The challenge to purists will always be finding a mint or near mint copy at a reasonable price - not impossible but significantly less probable with each passing year. Add to that the fact that, in their prime Black Sabbath appealed mainly to teenagers who neither had access to decent TTs/cartridges nor were particularly inclined to be careful with vinyl LPs. For these reasons alone this re-release is most welcome. Hats off to Steve Westman for lobbying Rhino to release this. Beats the hell out of The Cars, whose appeal on these sites escapes me.

Excellent comparison Tim! Thank you for sharing your honest thoughts about it. And... for me personally... thank you for NOT using the stupid, ubiquitous, and completely meaningless word 'Crisp' to describe the sound! 😁 (Can NOT frigg'n stand that!) BTW, the tube phono section is a GREAT idea! 👍 BEAUTIFUL! You will NEVER go back! I would frigg'n KILL for a Decware, but too expensive, and WAY too long of a wait. Also, the rubber mat I think is a very good choice. more solid and more dampening. Lovely video Bro!

Hi Tim.. It's a "consensus of opinion" that the best 12AX7 (European ECC83) are Telefunken with D getter.. good luck with the price😢 Cheers

Try a Sanctuary cut, sounds amazing

Schiit is expected to drop a big honking tube phono preamp the size of their Freya tube preamp. It’s supposed to be a no holds barred phono preamp and limited production of about 250 units. Expected pricing of $1,800~. They’ve been tinkering with it since 2015’sh and it’s going to come late 24 or early 25. Even though my Sutherland 20/20 has been a remarkable unit, I’m at least going to give that thing a try. If I don’t like it, I’m almost assured to get most, if not all, of my money back.

Good information on the Black Sabbath. The system upgrade looks and sounds great. I was able to find a very professional audio electronic engineer to work on my system. The Thorens TD-145 complete with an Audio Technica VM750SH, along with the Harmon Kardon 730 Twin Turbo. Next up will be the preamp. I have a pair of Boston Acoustic A-150 tombstone in Mint condition? Thank You

Unfortunately and stupidly back in the '90s when I was going crazy buying CDs I gave away half of my LPs, and that included all of my Black Sabbath albums. I still remember getting that album and being enthralled by it. Gawd what an idiot I was.

Acoustic sounds website shows it is still available.

5:000 was a pretty short run. Feel bad for the people who missed out ( for the record I didn’t order it)

How did you get the lights on that MA6100 to glow like that? Is that still the original glass?

bugle boys

NOS Mullards are great tubes but they do have a somewhat darker sound to them, which may be wonderful for Black Sabath. In general, NOS Telefunkens have a more balanced, less colored sound, which may be better suited to other artists music. I have no experience with the new Mullards, which from the box it looks like you have, but I doubt that they are anything like the vintage originals.

What phono stage are you using?

Change from moving magnet to moving coil, you'll never go back

That wasn't the opening track , but the B side .

2001 - 180 g reissue

That was not the opening track.

Cork is bad it holds dirt and can destroy your stylist if it comes in contact with it throw that away just saying Have a great day

First tweak, get rid of the Thorens turntable. Terrible arm, terrible suspension and very noisy.

I suggest you try an EAR 834 clone built by Stephe at Skunkie Designs. She has a youtube channel and a website. "Research" on audio sites based on reviews is as reliable as a book of matches in a monsoon. It is MM only, however.