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Nice turntables. Attached picture is an absolute requirement.

My adventures in stereo

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Technics 1200 Gr basking in the evening light

1200 GR evening.jpg
 

Xulonn

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If I were wealthy, and just for nostalgic fun...

(I once owned a Thorens TD125 MkII back in the 1970's)

The Thorens flagship during these days of a vinyl revival, is the $4.7k TD-1601. I see it as simple, elegant and beautiful:

4-Thorens TD-1601 Turntable-removebg-preview.jpg
 
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pseudoid

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If I were wealthy, and just for nostalgic fun...
(I once owned a Thorens TD125 MkII back in the 1970's)
The Thorens flagship during these days of a vinyl revival, is the $4.7k TD-1601. I see it as simple, elegant and beautiful:

Oh, I get it; this is the TD-1601 photo. First I looked at it, I said to myself "now that does not look like the TD125"!;)
If you wanted to pretend to know about audio and wanted to impress your college buddies; you had to have a Thorens TT.
 

My adventures in stereo

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Nice turntable, but your word choice ("basking in the evening light") made me throw up.
haha
Among all the gear I bought, none has given me more aesthetic pleasure
Also in terms of photograph, that was a complex exposure, pretty amazed by how good phone cameras have gotten now
 

MAB

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I bought this Luxman PD-444 used for next to nothing. It had the fake-rosewood ends eaten by a pet and are now actual rosewood, but everything else was more or less in order. I love this era of Luxman (mostly).
1669181493836.jpeg


The table is all vintage and has been part my hifi for almost 30 years. My dear old friend was Sumiko rep from back in the day and many of the bits and pieces are from his collection after he passed. The tonearms are not really exotic, an Audio Technica, several Grace, a Lustre, and a Mission. The cartridges are Grace, including a fairly rare Grace moving coil and a rare Grace F9 built into the headshell. I have lots of Supex, some of which are prototypes. A few Fidelity Research. An Ortophon and a Dynavector. I figure this is at least a lifetime supply. It all sounds just fine, is rock solid to use and feels good to the hand. I bought two modern pieces. A used PS Audio phono preamp that added nothing compared to my Elliott Sound preamp, or the one I designed and built in grad school. And, a new Hana cartridge was a waste since I have so many cartridges that sound great. I spent more on the Hana and the PS Audio than the entire vintage lot!:facepalm:
 

Mr. Widget

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I bought this Luxman PD-444 used for next to nothing. It had the fake-rosewood ends eaten by a pet and are now actual rosewood, but everything else was more or less in order. I love this era of Luxman (mostly).
That is a beauty!

I love those vintage Luxman turntables too. I believe they were all built by Micro Seiki.
My PD-300 has a manual vacuum hold down. Unfortunately it needs service as these days it can only hold a vacuum for the first few minutes of an album.

Lux Playing.jpg
Luxman PD-300.jpg
 

MAB

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That looks great.
Thanks for sharing! Love classic Luxman. I imagine the vacuum is fixable, but not necessary to enjoy...
 

Jim Shaw

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I've been using this Audio Technica LP-120 for over 10 years now. For the past about 9 years, it has been carrying a Denon DL-110 high output moving coil cartridge with a narrow elliptical diamond stylus.

I bought the A-T table when the Technics SL-1200 was desirable but out of production. The LP-120 is mostly very similar, with similar features. [The Technics is back, mostly for DJs, at about 6X the price of the LP-120. Cult status...]
One selection criterion was 78 rpm capability. I have a number of 78 rpm acetate discs that I once cut from vintage tapes. For them, I have a shell with a Shure mono cartridge. Most belt-drive TTs cannot do 78 rpm. The LP-120 can -- and 45 rpm if that's your need.

As a pianist, I'm pretty critical of wow and flutter. The first few hours with the LP-120 were disappointing; there was audible variation in pitch on sustained long piano tones. Then, one day, I noticed that variation was almost gone and the day after, gone entirely. It was probably caused by bearing wear-in. Since then, no issues whatsoever, but with streaming, my usage has dwindled.

The replacement of the existing cartridge with a Denon DL-110 was super good luck. It tracks light, and the narrow, elliptical diamond works miracles on not-new vinyl. Older, larger styli did their damage further 'up' in the groove. Clean the disc and it plays nearly like new. I particularly noticed a much more stable imaging of orchestral instruments than the old hundred-dollar MM pickup, and much greater clarity of transients -- especially percussion and piano. The trumpets stay rock solid where they belong, and so do the oboes and horns. Disc surface noise is much reduced, and even the inner diameter grooves don't degrade much in character. And the best part of the DL-110 is that it is about the same output as an MM. And it's designed to be terminated about the same as a typical MM, so little or no issues with the capacitance and impedance of the preamp.

I do not use the internal preamp of the LP-120. I have used it, but I prefer the perceived clarity of my preamp's MM phono input with the DL-110.

YMMV
1669233590765.png
 
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Audiodave

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The Tank... Technics SL-D202
 

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Xulonn

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Reed Muse 3C - interesting "futuristic" design...more HERE

Reed Muse Turntable.jpg
 

Xulonn

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And for only $31,000 USD, you can have this one:

Reed Muse 1C.jpg

Lithuanian manufacturer Reed tonearm, the 5T (£14,900), mounted on a Muse 1C belt-drive turntable (£11,000). The 5T is a tangentially tracking pivoted tonearm based on the Thales theorem and claiming a maximum tracking error of +/- .005 degrees. The position of the tonearm is regulated by laser and a linear sensor array.
 

board

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Here are some of my favourites, although I couldn't remember the name of one that I seem to remember as quite nice looking. It was reviewed by Framer in Stereophile, and at the time I think it had the most accurate motor with the least amount of speed fluctuations on the market, so if anyone knows which one it may be, feel free to suggest it. It wasn't a TechDas. It might have been from a Central European manufacturer. The plinth was not much larger than the size of the platter. Of course Framer didn't like it much, as it didn't have the inaccurate, fluctuating "vinyl" sound and sounded to much like digital.
I used to have a Thorens TD126 MkII Centennial, but honestly didn't think it looked particularly nice. I don't find that the brown wood look of older turntables has aged particularly well.


Kronos Pro:

kronos-pro-noir-angle-2.jpg



Kronos Sparta:
kronos_sparta.png



Transrotor Jupiter:

JupiterS-rechts_mitte-080.low_.jpg



Lastly, a simplistic one, the Rega Naiad:

Rega-Naiad-Turntable-1.jpg
 

board

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As a pianist, I'm pretty critical of wow and flutter. The first few hours with the LP-120 were disappointing; there was audible variation in pitch on sustained long piano tones. Then, one day, I noticed that variation was almost gone and the day after, gone entirely. It was probably caused by bearing wear-in. Since then, no issues whatsoever, but with streaming, my usage has dwindled.

Did the audible fluctuations in pitch on piano notes dissapear over time on the same records, or did you listen to certain records in the beginning and then other records later when the problem had disappeared?
I'm asking because to me it more sounds like the issue could have been records pressed off-center. Direct drive turntables usually have very, very stable motors, so it seems odd that there was audible fluctuations in pitch, although I suppose it's possible that it could have been the bearing settling in, as you suggest.
I've also had issues with pitch fluctuations on a George Winston piano album, but the record was pressed off-center.
 

Jim Shaw

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Did the audible fluctuations in pitch on piano notes dissapear over time on the same records, or did you listen to certain records in the beginning and then other records later when the problem had disappeared?
I'm asking because to me it more sounds like the issue could have been records pressed off-center. Direct drive turntables usually have very, very stable motors, so it seems odd that there was audible fluctuations in pitch, although I suppose it's possible that it could have been the bearing settling in, as you suggest.
I've also had issues with pitch fluctuations on a George Winston piano album, but the record was pressed off-center.
I used the same couple of records. One by Vladimir Ashkenazy and another by Lang Lang. (Jan Lisiecki, my current favorite pianist, was too young to record back then.)
Of course, I was pleasantly surprised when it improved. My only perception was that it was feeble but absolutely there. I couldn't unhear it. Then it soon disappeared. I don't think it was my hearing being 'broken in.' And I don't know exactly what caused it. It was NOT once per revolution, but it MIGHT have been the motor servo control fighting against a tight bearing, or such. I stopped being concerned with it after it disappeared.

Every turntable, I believe, has some wow and flutter. As with other issues of music playback, if I don't notice it, it's fine. I can sit back and enjoy the music.
As I have said before, HiFi is more about reducing annoyances than the impossibility of reproducing reality.
.....
If you are my piano tech, you know I'm unnaturally sensitive to piano tuning and voicing. He and I have an uneasy laugh about it, now and then, but when he's done he closes the fallboard, replaces the music desk and rack, sits back, and states, "There! One perfectly tuned piano."
(Like that's even possible.) :)
 

Robin L

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Every turntable, I believe, has some wow and flutter. As with other issues of music playback, if I don't notice it, it's fine. I can sit back and enjoy the music.
As I have said before, HiFi is more about reducing annoyances than the impossibility of reproducing reality.
.....
If you are my piano tech, you know I'm unnaturally sensitive to piano tuning and voicing. He and I have an uneasy laugh about it, now and then, but when he's done he closes the fallboard, replaces the music desk and rack, sits back, and states, "There! One perfectly tuned piano."
(Like that's even possible.) :)
There will always be some residual w/f from the turntable itself, but the best turntables will be defeated by the wow and flutter of record pressings.
 
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