Your turntable history

BSR MA70 as part a a 3 piece Fisher "compact" system.

Benjamin Miracord 50h

Dual 1019

VPI HW-19 Mark III

VPI TNT HR-X

First was a cheap plastic thing I got when at University in the early seventies to go with my integral cassette player and speakers.

The second was a Garrard SP25 that I bought from a friend.

Then came a Thorens TD166 that I customised with a Haddock arm and later passed on to my brother.

In 1982 I got a Linn LP with Basik arm that got upgraded eventually to Klimax level. It gave me many years of excellent service until I traded it in 2019 to focus on digital.

There followed five years without a turntable, until regret set in when I saw how much my sons and friends were enjoying vinyl. In 2024, I gave in and bought a second hand Klimax level second hand LP12 that someone traded in with my dealer for the same reasons I had. This was clearly so much better than my previous one, as things had moved on with the Urika II, Karousel and Radikal 2. That LP12  was put in a shiny new black plinth to satisfy my wife’s sense of aesthetics. I am happy with this LP12 and have so far resisted any temptation to get Bedrok, the new Klimax Radikal or Keel SE. That is not difficult because of the expense and the fact the my turntable already sounds fantastic without them.

Thorens TD166, 1986 - 1996 or so. Gave it all up. No regrets.

The first table I bought with my own money was a BIC 980 automatic table/tonearm with a Shure M91ED cartridge.  My next table was an AR EB101 that came with what looked like a Sumiko arm.  That was followed by a Mapenoll table with an air bearing tangential tracking arm and platter floating on air (a nightmare purchase that rarely worked properly).  That was followed by a Well Tempered Record Player which suspended the arm on fishing line that had a round disc stabilizing the arm by being emersed in a very viscous fluid; bugs got into the fluid and ended up at the bottom of the cup holding the fluid (my mini La Brea tar pit).  That was followed by a VPI HW14 Mark IV with a Graham 1.5t tonearm.  My latest table is a Basis Debut with vacuum clamp and outboard power supply and a Vector tonearm. 

1970s Lenko, hand me down from my grandmother

~1996 Project 6.1, nice like that one.

~ 2018 Thorens TD 203 [POS]

~2020 VPI super prime scout with ADS [decent]

~2024 Rega Naia [endgame]