Just so you know, for what little it is worth, I have decided that compared to my Thorens TD124 fully modded and revived by Greg of ClassicThorens/STS mated with a 12" Reed 3P arm, my VPI Prime just does not cut it. That is despite having a pro come out to my house to see if he could do something to coax magic out of it that I could not and despite using a periphery ring, Phoenix Engineering Falcon and Roadrunner, US cleaning of records (which is overrated), etc. Now I must emphasize-the VPI Prime is a very good table. It makes lovely music. But there is more "there there", more blackness, more dynamics, more thrust, more bass (particularly more bass in fact) with the Thorens/Reed combo. I have about four times as much money into the Thorens/Reed too. And in case someone wants to know-yes-I have tried 5-6 very well regarded cartridges with my Prime. So consistent with my very first post in this thread-it may be highly personal, but I don't like unipivots. I also prefer idler to belt drive. So I have put my Prime up for sale and I bought a new Reed 3P for my second deck-to-be, this time a 10.5. Then I came down to which deck to mate the new arm with and for me it came down to two. The Gem Dandy Polytable Super 12 or another vintage idler. I came very close to pulling the trigger on the Gem Dandy, particularly when George Merrill promptly responded to my questions and offered to personally mount my Reed 3P. But, a rare Garrard 301 came my way-one that is virtually NOS, grease bearing, and rare ivory colored. Since it is to be a second deck and I don't need two top-end decks, I was thinking I ought to be sensible and save $2000-2500 and just buy the Polytable Super 12. I had my imaginary frugal alter-ego perched on one shoulder and my spendthrift alter ego perched on my other. My neck was getting sore listening to them argue. But that Garrard kept calling my name and the guy I purchased the Reed from (who is biased being an avowed Garrard fanatic) helped me decide to go with the Garrard. My point being that my recommendation is truly mine. Here is a neat little factoid-Sleeve City-fwiw-only sells one turntable. It is the $1800 Gem Dandy Polytable. https://www.sleevecityusa.com/GEM-Dandy-PolyTable-p/gem-polytt.htm |
FWIW, if you have the old idler, it can be rebuilt by Russell Industries on the east coast: http://russellind.com/downl.htm The PRB catalog is the old Projector Recorder Belt company that was located in Whitewater Wisconsin prior to Russell Ind. buying them out. Their work is excellent BTW; I've had them rebuild idlers and pro audio tape recorder pinch rollers a number of times. You need a lot of precision with 1" wide pinch rollers! |
