Philips 212 TT

Cayuga

I'm putting together a two channel system for my son, I picked up this Philip's 212 and looked at all info on line. Just interested in your thoughts about this table. The vintage system would be Pioneer sx-850,Polk Monitor 7's and the 212.

Oldfatdogs

Your a good dad to give up those 7s.

[Deleted User]

Ah, the Philips GA 212 was and is a good turntable for a good sounding system. Belt drive with a coupled platter and tonearm support. I used to match it up with a Grace F9E and it sounded excellent. I recommended leaving the tonearm tracking force weight all the way back closest to the arm pivot instead of moving it along the arm. In other words, use the counterweight to set the desired tracking force and leave the small weight on the arm close to the pivot. In my opinion this is better than sliding the small weight along the arm after the counterweight has brought the arm to zero balance. This keeps the moment of inertia near the pivot point and might improve tracking of less than flat records.
Enjoy, Ken

Cayuga

Thanks for the feedback

mhardy6647

Great entry level turntable of its day; frightfully common in the mid-Atlantic. I like to think of it as the "poor man's Thorens" - it gets you into that European belt drive, suspended-subchassis, low-mass arm playground at a bargain price. Ken's suggestion appeals intuitively :-) although I must admit that I always set the VTF on mine* per Philips' instructions.

The weak links in a 35-ish-year old GA-212 are the push-push on/off power switch and the incandescent lamps in the touch controls. The later GA-312's solved the latter problem with LEDs (far less sexy looking, though). Replacement lamps are available if yours FUBAR themselves.

In case you didn't know this already, manuals are available at:
http://www.vinylengine.com/library/philips.shtml
(free registration required for d/l)




* OK, I didn't actually have a GA-212 until quite recently on the geologic time scale... but my first "modern" turntable was an exceedingly similar GA-308 (same arm, but with manual controls and a 10" platter) bought used from an idiosyncratic hifi joint on 25th Street in Baltimore back in 1977.

Cayuga

Thank you for the information about a manual, I've got to get a new belt and do some rehab. Overall I think this will be a nice table for my son.

mhardy6647

De nada.

Just be sure to install a high-compliance cartridge. That wee little arm won't be too happy with, say, a Denon DL-103! :-)

I've always liked Grados in the ol' Philips (that's what I use in my AF-877)... YMMV, though, of course.

steveinaz

Cool starter 2-channel rig.

Cayuga

My hope is that my son will start to understand that there's more to music than a IPod

steveinaz

Nothing like vinyl to get him there.