@elliottbnewcombjr those are all great looking choices. Tucson isn’t a bad drive. I could visit a dealer of mine north of there on the way. Thank you for all the great suggestions.
Newbie turntable Upgrade
So I broke my cardinal rule about not going down the Vinyl Rabbit-hole, now this Alice-in-Wonderland owns a Fluance RT85, 4,count them, FOUR phonostages (Parasound XRM, Darlington Labs, Sutherland , and a Waxwing to feed my dac) Ortofon 2M Blue, and Bronze, and a Denon DL-110 cartridge along with a bunch of decent jazz and classic rock lp's. Now the need to upgrade the turntable has risen. Looking for suggestions that doesn't exceed $2K usd.
I value your opinions.
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Technics turntables are a lot like the Toyota Camry of cars. To common to geek out on, but very well built and a good value for the dollar spent. The highest of performance? No. But certainly well executed.
For $2K I cannot think of a package that has a solid drive unit and tonearm that betters it. VPI is a second choice, but not a fan as I think every major sub component is average and never exceptional. Now if you want a table that offers excellent performance, will challenge your cartridge alignment skills, and teach you a great deal about analog and the interactions of sub components of a turntable...then look at a Well Tempered turntable. It might be a few bucks above budget, ,but it is very close. It is a geeks turntable for sure. Vintage tables offer a lot of value for the dollar. But maintenance may become a concern, and there are not as many techs who can rebuild and calibrate a direct drive table. Some tonearms like the Acos GST-801 are getting long in the tooth and often have parts missing that are difficult to source or have the magnet in the VTF device fracture and become inoperable. Sure you can static balance the arm, but do you want a piece that is not working as it is designed? Some people don't mind, others do. Yes the Technics keeps its 80's era look. Some people don't like it, I am probably one of them. But in terms of performance, I think that one is close to the top for what you are willing to spend. |
A Technics would be what I would get. Don't buy a VPI until you have used and heard one!
@elliottbnewcombjr For $5 from KABUSA https://www.kabusa.com/frameset.htm?/m1200.htm (scroll to bottom of page) you can get the plans to build a wood plinth for a Technics 1200 if its appearance is so offensive to you. Any decent carpenter should be able to put one together for much less than the $799 from our friends at SkyFi. |
'so offensive to you' is overstated, but I guessed, turned out I was right, OP like me, is not in love with the appearance of the Technics. Thanks for the link, I'm in walking distance from Kevin, everyone speaks highly of him. I have a friend I met here with two Technics who has used him, and another friend had the ON/OFF switch of the SP-15 I gave him repaired. We have New Jersey Hardwoods, their web site is not coming up, they have made several custom items for me, refinished a few furniture items, and made a few custom plinths for Thorens TD125 for VAS that I helped them with.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/new-jersey-hardwoods-plainfield
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