Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Turntable Recommendations?

David, I was just looking for a link on those as well. Denon still makes this one which gets good reviews.

Music Hall may also be worth a look, as well as Rega.

FWIW, I have a Technics SL1200MKII for transferring customer's LPs to CD and, much as I love the "commercial, built-like-a-tank" quality, I DON'T love that it's fully manual. I've started an LP, picked up a phone call near the end of the LP side, and just have it running on the .... (shoot, can't remember the term)...."lead out" groove at the end for 20 minutes.

I thought it would be a reasonable purchase expense for the business to offer the service, but we've done very few for customers. I thought I would enjoy it on a personal level, but to be frank, the sepia-toned nostalgia has turned into a reality of surface noise and inconvenience.

I still like the fact that I can purchase cheap, used LPs and convert them, but I've had this thing for about two years and haven't done that for more than four albums.

Maybe someday if I have more time...... But I guess I can say that I have NOT fallen back in love with LPs.

Hi 1sweetspot,

If you're using a subwoofer in your system, I'd recommend you get a direct-drive, as the rumble frequencies are inherently below audibility and below the range of the majority of subwoofers (around 12 to 13 Hz).

Belt-drive turntables use a faster-rotating motor and a belt link to the platter that is subject to greater potential fast speed variations (flutter) than direct drive. And the faster -rotating motor produces residual rumble frequencies in the 20 to 30 Hz region, resulting in "pumping" of a subwoofer driver. If any of the high-end tweaks bothered to do proper tests on turntables, they would know this.

Given the fact that some vinyl discs contain recorded rumbled caused by the cutting lathe, I'd recommend either using a switchable rumble filter (hard to find) or getting a direct-drive model so the playback device--the turntable--doesn't contribute rumble of its own.

I gave a Stanton direct-drive to my son and it's been very reliable. The supplied cartridge is OK, but not great. I'd replace it with a Shure M97, which is very smooth and linear and close in performance to the Shure V15, and it uses the damped brush that allows the cartridge to track small and large warped LPs much more effectively. It also reduces "warp wow".

It's true that the Technics SL-1200 has ceased production and used ones are very expensive. They do last forever.

Regards,
Alan

The Project, Music Hall and Regas are all good belt-drive units. One advantage of those is they often come with less "massy" more sophisticated tonearms, so you can mount higher-quality phono cartridges that track at lower stylus pressures.

Also, some of those brands are supplied with mediocre Ortofon cartridges, which do not track as well as the top Shures, Grados and Stantons. US manufacturers still build the most linear, best-tracking cartridges (Shure, Grado, Stanton).

I recommended the Denon direct-drives for years back when I was editor of Sound & Vision magazine in Canada.

Regards,
Alan

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Thanks for all your input. I'll keep my eyes open for a direct drive, preferrably USB capable unit with a decent cartridge.

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I would have said go with the Technics 1200 or whatever number. I have an SL-1700, from the 70's..still works perfectly. But i saw the prices on them. I would pick up a used one, as they just never break, or a Rega. depends on how much you want to spend.

I just purchased a used Rega P3 Planar with from friend and mounted a Dynavector 10X5 MC cartridge and it sounds amazing .