Vinyl Asylum Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Vinyl Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

RE: $700 turntable recommendation

Posted by CometCKO (A) on February 21, 2015 at 20:33:07

In Reply to: $700 turntable recommendation posted by mjcmt on February 21, 2015 at 19:42:37:

I assume you're looking for a new production table, not a vintage one. If vintage, it is very hard to go wrong with the Thorens TD-150. I lived happily with one for more than 25 years and it was dead-stone reliable and extremely musical as well. If you get a nicely maintained one, like the one posted below, I think you'll be very happy.

For new production, I think the VPI Traveler is about as low as I'd go on the pecking order. It sounds really quite nice. The gimbal tonearm is quite competent, impressively supporting some pretty expensive cartridges without shame.

Modern-but-used is another category you might check out. You can occasionally pick up an early VPI Scout for about that price as well. The Scout has a nice upgrade path, but the base Scout is a lot more lively and fun than most people give it credit for. The bigger VPI's deliver a lot more of the audiophile virtues (extended bass, deep black silences), but not much more music. Highly recommended.

Vintage can be a crap shoot, but a lot of 70's Japanese direct drive tables are well past their sell-by dates, and most could use replacement of their power supply caps at least. I like some of the simple ones, like the Technics SL-Q2 or Q3. Probably less than $200 for a decent one, which gives you the chance to buy a better phono cartridge and/or invest in a decent phono stage.

Hope this helps!



"Knowing what you don't know is, in a sense, omniscience"

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Analog Engineering Associates

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---