I've been over at my brother in law's and he has a good vynil collection and I love the sound of those records. I want to start building a little vynil collection. I've been looking at the TECHNICS SL-1200MK2. What other options are available within the same price range, any reccomendations?

Thanks!

You should look at the Rega line at the low end (P1), as they make excellent turntables.

In fact, Linn used to recommend the Rega's to those people who could not/would not spend for a Linn LP12

I was going thru my Oldies.com CD catalog the other day, and in the back, they listed quite a few turntables. They carry Thorens, and Audio-Technica.
When I saw how many they are offering, and how expensive some were, it tells me Vinyl is making much more of a come-back than I had thought.

Mistico, check out Music Direct at http://www.musicdirect.com/ and of course, Jeremy Raskin, the Needle Doctor.

Rega makes an excellent entry level turntable (they also build some of the best arms out there), and Music Direct's MMF series tables are wonderful. I have my eye on a Funk Vector table. Technics makes wonderful and bullet proof turn tables as well.

There are turn table/cartridge combos out there that go for more than $100,000. Ruling class sure does love its state of the art sound reproduction toys.

Thanks for the suggestions. The Rega P1 looks very nice and is priced in line with what I want to spend. The Funk Vector is pretty cool. I would like something like that but probably once I'm past being a vinyl newbie.

The Rega P1 looks like the ticket right now.

Thanks!

Rega is a good choice.

Enjoy!

How's Music Hall?

I almost went that way when I bought my Technics....

Music Hall is a decent turntable, it's pretty much a clone of a Pro-Ject table.

I would skip all those budget belt drives and go with the Technics. It's a much better built table than the others. The SL-1200MK2 is a piece of equipment that will last a life time.

Hi,

Pro-ject, Music Hall and Rega are all very good belt-drive turntables.

As someone else pointed out, the Technics 1200 is a direct drive and will go on forever. The downside is that it has a slightly clunky, more "massy" tonearm, compared to the more refined tonearms of the Rega, Pro-ject and Music Hall.

The Technics has inherently superb speed accuracy and zero audible rumble with adjustable speed. Belt drives sometimes have some speed error but not enough to worry about.

Sometimes the supplied moving-magnet cartridges are only so-so. You might want to upgrade.

Regards,

Alan

Mistico,

About the supplied MM cartridges--they are often Ortofon, a German brand that is just so-so, in my experience.

If you want to upgrade the moving-magnet cartridge, consider three American brands that are very good trackers and reasonably priced: Grado, Shure or Stanton.

Any model up to about $100 would deliver much better performance than the Ortofons, and would also be fine in the Technics tonearm if you decided to go with that model.

Regards,
Alan

When I was researching carts for my Denon which is direct drive I had read, quite often, the Grado doesn't always play nice together with direct drive tables.

Hi Wid,

Well, I've never heard that but then it would depend on which Grado you tried to put into a more massive tonearm. Grado makes some very expensive Signature cartridges that have very delicate stylus assemblies. To perform best, these really require a custom separate tonearm.

But the lower-priced Grados ($100 or less) should be fine, unless there is some shielding issue. The Grado I used to use was a Signature 8, and it worked fine in custom SME tonearm on a Scottish turntable (Ariston) that was a clone of the Linn.

Generally speaking, the more massive the tonearm, the greater the tracking force you have to use. Most Japanese direct-drive turntables should be run at about two grams tracking force.

Alan

Thanks for the additonal info. I did see that the rega was a belt drive and it concerned me a bit since most of the direct drive Technics I've seen have been around for a long time, the design has barely changed.
I'm glad I asked and didn't just purchase something right away. Once again, thanks for all the info Wid, Alan, 2x6spds and BBIBH.

Hi mistico,

I can shed some light on the Pro-ject turntables. I have a Pro-ject Xpression III and have really enjoyed the table. It's a belt drive, but I haven't had any problems with speed accuracy or rumble. Before getting the Pro-ject, I also looked at the Rega tables. I decided on the Pro-ject because the build quality seemed a little higher than the Rega tables and it came with a phono cartridge. I've also had some experience with my dad's Technics 1200 table and can attest to its strong reputation.

That's a nice table Guillermo.

Question, is the SL-1200MK5 any better than the MK2?
Amazon has the MK5 for $397 and the MK2 for $369. I would get black.

From what I remember, the only difference between the MK2 and MK5 is that the MK5 has a few minor features geared towards DJ usage. Also, the MK2 comes with an included dust cover, while the MK5 does not.

I ordered and SL-1200MK2PK and it arrived today. I also got a Shure M97xE.

Thanks for all the advise and info.

Hi Mistico,

That's great--the Shure M97xe is a very linear cartridge with excellent tracking ability that in my tests some years ago was bettered only by the $500 Shure V-15 Type V (no longer available).

The Shure M97xe is also a very good match for the Technics tonearm.

Regards,

Alan

Great choice, let us know what you think of the new table once you start spinning some vinyl

I'll do that.

Alan, from all the reading I did, the M97xe was the best match for the 1200 in that price range.

Nice, congrats. I use the same cart on my Denon. It's a nice cartridge.

Check this out. Vinyl is the new MP3!!!! One of the vinyl stores I go to closed shop recently. It'd be nice to go a local store and browse bins for NEW music.

http://gizmodo.com/5229996/best-buy-may-start-selling-vinyl-records

That article makes a lot of sense and has some good and entertaining replies. I kind of fall under the new vinyl user group. A couple of friends have turn tables and I love the sound. We've played the same records on CD(not SACD) and vinyl and most of the time we prefer the vinyl version. Thanks for the link!

I finally got home and unpacked the turntable and the reviews were spot on. The thing is very well built and can be appreciated even by gearheads upon close inspection. I'm impressed and pleased at the same time. Makes me feel good that this thing will might live as long as I will

The downside is that the cartridge isn't here yet so I haven't been able to listen to it. The tracking number show's it as AWOL so I doubt I'll get it tomorrow either.

The Best Buy near me has been selling them since the beginning of the year. I have yet to jump back into the turntable scene again, though.

ihave a bang n olufsen beogram 1800 with a mmc 4. is there a replacment cartridge or should i get technic with a grado?

Take a look at the Needle Doctor, they might have a replacement.

Rick
Do you think the Needle Doctor is one of the better online sources?

Sadly I caught my 4 yr old dragging the stylus across my Cuban jazz record. It's scratched and OM10 cart is toast. Good time for an upgrade.

Thanks.

osb

I do.

Just because you like the site doesn't mean you have to marry it.

Does anyone have a suggestion for an OM10 upgrade?

The Shure M97xe looks like a good option. I'm trying to stay below $100.

I'm using a Shure 97 that I like quite a bit in my Technics... It's a pretty well-regarded cartridge...

As I was installing my new Shure the other day (great deal on Amazon BTW), I realized that the tonearm was way out of balance. Could be why my OM10 sounded so poorly. Oh well...still going to use the Shure anyways.

THEN I realized, years after buying this thing, that I had never installed the anti-skating weight. DOH! All set up and listened to this last night:

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/79243

(THE THELONIOUS MONK QUARTET WITH JOHN COLTRANE AT CARNEGIE HALL (200g MONO LP)

I've never gotten into the whole Monk/Coltrane/Miles thing, but I have to admit that this is an impressive recording for it's age. It sounds SO good on my setup, just gorgeous with the tubes.

I tried to give a listen on my Grado 325i's via the headphone out on the Rotel 1025. There was a loud, background hum that bugged me. Oddly, I don't hear it on the speakers.

Whoops It has to sound better now.

Hi,

Be sure and run your Shure M97 at the top of its recommended tracking-force range (probably around 2 grams) rather than at the lightest pressure. While doing the latter seems like it would be a good idea (less tracking force, less wear), it isn't advisable unless you are using a very sophisticated expensive low-mass tonearm. If you use too little tracking force in a typical arm, the cartridge may mis-track on heavily modulated (loud) passages, literally carving the distortion permanently into the vinyl. That can never be "erased" and you'll hear it every time you play the disc at the point where the stylus mistracked.

I'm sure you'll be pleased with the Shure's performance once it is set up properly.

Regards,
Alan

Ah, good suggestion. I will do that. I like the new 'toy', I even bought some new LPs on musicdirect.com yesterday. Hopefully, Xmas will come in the mail before Friday...