Music Hall or Rega TT

Well, they all have their good points.

The Regas tend to be a touch fast on speed, and sometimes don't mate well with Grado cartridges because of the motor location causing hum. But they have very good arms, and are easy to upgrade and tweak.

The Music Hall has some advanced features like improved motor position and nice plinth design. They use a Sumiko Project arm, which is pretty good. Music Hall's designer used to make the now-defunct Revolver turntable, which was considered good at the time.

So you have tables to choose from that come from some of the older and more experienced British turntable makers. You could do alot worse than any one of them.

If you are looking at that price range, you may want to also consider the Nottingham Horizon. Nottingham makes some nice turntables that are good performance value for the money.

Since you are planning to upgrade your TT, I suggest you also consider the entry-level VPI Jr. It can be upgraded in increments all the way to the HW-19 Mk4, so you have a TT that can grow with your analog interests.

Don't forget the Creature on steroids...a review is coming up on on the optional outboard power supply.

I've listened extensively to both lines and both are very good for the price range. However, I hear from dealers the reliability of Music Hall is very questionable. The compatibility with Grado IS a factor, thus I run mine with a Benz Micro. Good luck.

I'll throw in my .02 as an owner of a MMF-7. I bought the table used and have been pretty satisfied with its performance. I have seen many Music Hall owners post that they are very satisfied with them and don't plan on ever changing out their tables. That being said, the analog bug can bite pretty hard and I have already begun to plan for a table upgrade in the future. This brings me to one issue with the MMF-7. There is really no appreciable upgrade path. I have rewired mine and changed to Vampire RCAs but that is about all I can do with it. So I would be looking at changing the table, arm, and probably the cartridge as well.

FWIW, the table came with a Shure v15vxmr and it does a decent job with my fully modified EAR 834P. I have not tried other cartridges yet, but if memory serves me you need to stay with a low mass cartrdge with the project arm so I think that many low output MC cartridges are not a good match on the Music Halls.

I have not used one, but at least with a Rega it seems that you can usually modify the arm and use it on many higher quality tables.

Something to think about.

I have a rega turntable (p2), and, givin the price, have no complaints. The tonearm is good, and the p3's rb300 is one I have seen paried with much more expensive tables.

In the price range you are talking about, try and stretch it a bit and get a VPI Scout. It's better than the MMF and Regas. If you can buy used and want to keept the costs down, look at a used HW 19. Both the Scout and the HW 19's also have very solid, progressive upgrade paths as financing allows.