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I have enough vinyl now to invest in a turntable,I like something used but inexpensive,ya know bang for my buck.Its been twentyfive years since my last table,which was a entry level Dual with a Signet cartridge.Whats ya'lls thoughts?Technics,Pioneer,Yammy???
Budget? Manual, Semi-auto, fully auto?
Technics are a good solid workhorse with decent sound and a lot of their models are inexpensive. Most are fairly quiet.
Pioneer made some tables also. The old PL-12 line was/is a good bang for the buck table.
The Yamaha line is also good if you stay away from the entry level plastic line.
What's your budget? I'd suggest as good a table as you can afford.
You can pick up some decent Thorens for around $200 and up depending on condition and cartridge. The Thorens vintage tables last seemingly forever and for sound quality are unbeatable.
For a starter budget TT, Dual 1228 and 1229 belt-driven are pretty good (I like my 1228). Of course, lower-model Thorens can be had for a couple hundred dollars.
If you want something more modern, Rega Planar 2 or 3?
I'm in the Technics camp. The SL-12xx series are tough to beat. I have the SL-1210M5G with a Denon, DL-160 cartridge and absolutely love the combo. These things are built like tanks, to last. I'll never need to buy another table again.
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/22bdf8dfec.jpg
Hey that looks like my table!!!
+1 on the technics
Best bang for the buck tables out there. You can tweak em' easy and if anything, you can always modify it to be one hella, RCM. :rolleyes: :D ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by TOOLFORLIFEFAN
+1 on the Technics. I've spent about $650 total on mine between buying the used table, mods and tweeks, and a new Denon DL-160 cartridge and it sounds as good as other tables I've heard costing a couple to several thousands of dollars.
If your intent is new production and under a kilobuck, I'd concur that the Technics SL-1200 family is the only thing that is really worthy of consideration. The R&D costs were amortized long ago, and the scale of mass-production (and low profit margins) makes it the clear value leader. The inexpensive (sub-$1k) boutique belt-drive tables are all more or less cheesy in construction values (at least) relative to the Technics. Direct drive really isn't so bad...
There are lots of good used options, but buy local if you go that route. Hint: think Thorens :-)
The AR line of vintge TT's are excellent and a great value for what they sell for today. You can get an AR-XA for $50-$100 that will perform as well as a TT costing ten time as much. Even better are the later model AR's which range from $200-$500 used depending on their condition. The most important part of the package is the cartridge. That's where you need to spend your money.
The problem that I have with buying used tables is that unless you know what you are doing, you have no way to tell if it's set up properly.....
For under half a kilo-buck, you can pick up a Rega, Music Hall, Pro-ject....all plug and play. No guesswork.
BDT