My turntable progression/regression

[rwortman]

My first table I purchased in 1976 as a broke USAF airman was a Rotel RP-1000. About 13 years later during the CD boom I bought a new Denon DP37F direct drive with ‘servo tracer’ arm. I loved that thing. Then some time in the late 90’s I read an article by everyone’s favorite analog guru in Stereophile extolling the virtues of the new entry level turntable from Music Hall. I sold my beautiful Denon to a coworker for nearly nothing (see what they go for now) and bought the Music Hall MMF 1.x. What a complete piece of junk. $300 and should have cost $50. Wobbly rumbly “bearing”, third world build quality, just garbage. I should have taken Fremer to small claims court for recommending it. After a few years of modifying it to try to get acceptable sound, I sold it to another gullible believer and bought a mint used Dual CS5000. Very nice table. I kept that until 2005 when I read a rave review by Art Dudley of the then new VPI Aries Scout. Sold the Dual to a friend who is still using it and bought one. No regrets there. A very well built, quiet, steady running TT. For the last decade I have been purchasing original mono pop and jazz recordings from the mid 50’s to early sixties. Wanted a mono cartridge. Changing carts is fiddly and time consuming. Extra arm wands for the Scout are stupid expensive. Wanted a table with an arm with quick change headshells. Was shopping for an inexpensive table for my sister-in-law and kept looking at one I had been eyeballing. Found a AT-LPW50BT on sale for her and ordered myself a Pioneer PLX-1000.(arm bearings are fine) Spent last evening listening to it. I really don’t think it gives up much if anything to the VPI in terms of sound quality and adds quite a bit of convenience. It’s a little thing but I love the way the motor stops on a dime when it’s time to flip a record. It’s built to withstand dj abuse. It will probably outlive me.

 

[mike70]

The pioneer is a great table, as the "brand new" Technics mk7.
Forget about audiophile talking, a decent cartridge / preamp and that's all.