Most hyped turntable, tonearm, and cartridge?

@millercarbon, "You want to know the truth? Once a very reasonably affordable level is reached there are a whole lot of turntables that are so good that what you will hear is at least as much due to what the turntable is sitting on as the table itself."


That was certainly my truth when I placed a cheap plastic turntable upon a solid wood rigid open framed table and was taken aback at what I was hearing. A wonderfully open dynamic sound lacking very little other than deep bass!

I guess all turntables must vary in the extent that they are influenced by their environments, but none seem to be totally indifferent.

OK maybe this one real got close.

Yes, it’s that AR hammer test once again.

As for most hyped. Easily the LP12 through the late 1980s, at least in the UK. You really had to be there to see some of the messianic nonsense written about this latter day AR and the rebadged Audio Technica cartridges it often came with.

https://youtu.be/1rgK0YMsJXM

@aj523,

"Of course I still obessed a little with vibration and swapped out the stock feet for the Symposium rollerback plus and one of their better shelves. And changed the cart to the Aphelion2 which was a nerve racking experience, thank God for the head screw."



This is the kind of unforgettable stuff that sets us audiophiles apart from the rest of the human race. We sometimes seem to be living 2 lives, one for the world and the other for our obsession.

After 20 years of marriage and 2 kids I don't think I'd be up to that kind of thing anymore. It's bad enough with a $250 cart let alone a $3k one.

Gosh those days of experimenting with wall shelves and various turntable platforms seem so so long ago - and yet so recent.

If I remember correctly different platforms under the Rega 3 never seemed to make much difference.

The better way for me to go was to use a rigid lightweight table as a support rather than a wall shelf.

I now suspect that this was largely down to living fairly close to a busy main road whereby no wall shelf was ever going to excel in being stationary enough.

I hope you've had better luck at the vinyl summit with your Rega 10. Many years later I'm still not certain what the best way of attaching a turntable wall shelf would be, but here's a nice story warning of some potential dangers.

https://theaudiophileman.com/decent-audio-turntable-wall-shelf/

Technics SL-1200GR is about as simple as turntables go.

Best built and loaded with technology it's tremendous value for money too. 

All 3 are great turntables but this is the one I'd choose without any hesitation.

@ihcho ,

"I somehow thought that the 301/309/SPU is at the level of holly grail in turntable community"


No one is saying it isn't. At least not far off. Certainly not me.

Don't forget that the fabled Technics SP10 itself harkens back to around 1970.