Most hyped turntable, tonearm, and cartridge?
You could try at least Technics SP-10 mk2 without any mods, this is high-end Technics. Their SP-10 mk3 is ultra high-end. The new one is SP-10R (drive about $7k) and SL-1200GAE turntable ($4k). Even $900 SL-1200 mk7 is completely different turntable comparing to your old $400 hi-fi SL1200 mk2 @rushfan71 |
Back in the '70's when a lot of this started, we had a lot of different TTs in my shop. Garrard was a joke back then--plastic and sold for about $40.00, I think. Thorns' tables were hard to get for a while. I think they were a couple hundred bucks...also belt drive as I remember and OK, but not perfect. Linn-Sondek was supposed to be great. It was a belt drive, as I remember, and had a lot of issues and kept putting out changes to fix them whenever a reviewer would point something out. Technics came out with DD tables and all of a sudden, the ultimate tables were born!! I forget all the numbers--an SP-10, maybe, was $500 dollars and pretty good, but of course the audiophile world had lots of negative things to say about them. Shure arms (SME something--I forget all the numbers) were about $100.00-$125.00 and had removable head shells, which was judged to be a no-no back then for all kinds of reasons. I forget all the arms with fixed head shells that came out about then. The physicists said the straight-arm tables were the best as they tracked better, but B&O limited theirs to their own cartridges, which were mediocre at best as I remember. Another guy had a straight arm that you could put on a table, but it did not work very well. Moving coil cartridges with various amps were in favor--Decca, Satin, Supex, Grado, etc. AT and Shure still had MM ones and their prices started rising. They were afterthoughts until then, I think. My fav was the Transcriptor. We had one in the window to attract people. It never actually WORKED, of course, but it sure was pretty with its SME arm, etc. I think we actually sold a couple of them--probably as art objects! I would guess Panasonic Technics tables are still pretty good. They started making them for discos so you could move the platter with your finger--MK 10 or 11 or something, and became a bit expensive. I still think I sold more B&O with the tracking arm than any, but I forget. I sold a lot of Thorns tables as well. Cassette tapes (METAL!) were big, as were Nakamichi tape decks, which broke but worked great when they did. I would suggest going with Panasonic if they are still being made. Cheers! |
I would suggest going with Panasonic if they are still being made. @richopp If you missed this click here |
Rega- it’s hyped maybe deservedly so, but should get a mention regardless When I started my first ever audiophile TT search this past Spring, I soon realized it was going to a nightmare of obsessive, expensive and inefficient tweaks for me, several of which I’m simply not skilled enough to pull off properly. So I went with Rega since it’s advertised as an all in one solution and a 40+year track record with very little to fuss about. Dealer let me line up the P6,8, and 10 in my house and the 10 won easily hands down. 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. |
