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hiI just found a turntable in the attic - it is a quarz driven DD- Akai AP 307.It is fully automatic with a manual overide. It has a nice mellow sound to it and appears to be in good condition. Is it worth keeping and anyone have any tips about maintenance and which cartridge to use on it.
regards and thanks
maurice
Follow Ups:
belt drive unit from the early 80's. Question. Is it a medium gray bodied unit w/ the two black knobs on the right? If so, then it's of the same family.Can't comment on the DD variety but my friend's belt drive unit sounds nice and contains a "P" mount DJ concorde style Ortofon cart. The table uses, what looks like a particle board material w/ a melanine gray finish for the plynth. Not bad for it's day and being fully automatic, as his is, you can't upgrade the arm. I'm guessing it's a low mass arm.
Put a decent cart on it. The mellow sound you descibed sounds like the cart is on the warm side. If you like that sound, upgrade the cart that has that similar sound quality-otherwise, the table may be on the bright side.
All in all, a decent table, but you could do better with a new unit-such as a Rega, Music Hall etc. Modern tables are significanly improved over those made in the 1980's.
Remember this, it's a Japanese table and generaly, they are not the best sounding tables in their respective price ranges. If I recall right, bass is a tad light on this rig but some of that may be cart/phono stage related as well.
John.
thanks that is very useful - sounds very like it - a hideous sort of grey - I rediscovered it in my parents attic - I bought it second hand about ten years ago and it sounded good to me then - now I am aware there are better things out there but being broke I would like to use this to tide me over - I was considering a Thorens TD 190 or a Reag P2 or P3. I will look into the cartridge - I haven't really much of a clue about turntables. I have a lot of records which are in pretty much mint condition (they were the only things I really looked after as a teenager) and really want to be able to play them - I don't need top audiophile quality as frankly the rest of my system doesn't warrant it - everything is at least 5 or 6 years old - most of it being about 10 years old and was budget at the time - good budget but not top end.Kind Regards
maurice
Keep it, put a decent cart on it and it'll definately do you until funds can permit an audio upgrade.With a newer cart, the table will definately improve sonicaly-up to a point and will be the biggest change you can make.
As I said, my friend's table has a P mount cart (or is it really one of those universal mount units). It's one of those that can go in place of the standard 1/2 inch mount headshell. He has, as I'm assuming yours is too, the chrome "S" shaped arm.
If you go w/ the 1/2 inch standard mount cart. Make sure it's properly setup though. A missaligned cart can do irreprable damage to your precious vinyl (and will sound distorted etc).
Do check out the archives for proper setup tools, techniques etc-that is if you are into doing it yourself. It's not that difficult, just be very carefull of the cantileaver though. They are easily broken off-as many can attest to-including yours truly.
John.
You don't have money for anything better, therefore keep it. What is the rest of your equipment?
the rest of my sytem is:Amp - Denon 520 PMA
Cd - Marantz - CD 52 Mk II
Speakers - Rogers LS6
Tuner - Denon - TU 260L
Tape Deck - Aiwa AD F410Thanks guys you have been a lot of help.
regards
maurice
I will assume that the Denon is an integrated amp. You can do better, but only with more cash. I know limited budget. I would spend what free cash you may have on some decent interconnects and for speaker wires.
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