Recommendation for turntable

Sumerian

Hello Guys,
Its been quite a while since i posted in this forum.
I have been away from audio nirvana for a while.
Planning to add a turntable to my setup.
I have Cary SLP05, Polk 707 connected with shot gun S3s powered by JC1s. My budget is around 600$.
Greatly appreciate your help. Thanks in advance.
Based on internet search Audio technica and U turn seems to be the good ones in that budget range. What you guys think?

verb

Check out my thread. Lot's of cool stuff:
http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/180385/show-me-your-tts/p1

cmy330go

$600 puts you in the market for a number of good options. If you're determined to buy new, U-Turn is certainly worth considering, though IMO there are a few other more established/more-experienced companies that are worth considering, such as: Rega, Pro-Ject, Music-Hall, etc. If you're willing to venture into the used market you may be able to snag a deal on some pretty serious tables.

MrBuhl

^^ totally agreed, you could get a pretty nice table used and some vinyl cleaning and maintenance stuff for that, and you'll want that with a nicer table IMO ^^

SCompRacer

Do you have a phono pre amp? IIRC the SLP 05 didn't have one...

Sumerian

Thanks for the replies. Can you please let me know what i should look at in used market.?

hochpt21

I would look at something in the Pro-Ject Debut series.

For $400 you can get a solid belt drive TT with a nice arm and an Ortofon Red preinstalled. Or for $600 you can get one with a speed box built in.

I think they basically show up plug and play...

agfrost

SCompRacer wrote: »

Do you have a phono pre amp? IIRC the SLP 05 didn't have one...

This is an important question.

mhardy6647

well -- in the interest of option creation, the mass-market (gasp!) direct drive Japanese turntables from the mid 1970s into the early 1980s were -- good. Not great, but good. Medium mass arms that are good match for today's medium to low-ish compliance cartridges (MM, MI or even most MCs). The arms quality were generally good, the bearings decent (see note below). The drive systems were good and the general level of construction (especially earlier in that era, or at higher price points) was good and sometimes excellent.

They were also unfussy in setup (they were massmarket items, after all!) but care in setup will yield commensurate improvement. They're also relatively tweakable and upgradable.

They're not quite bargains any more, but $300 to 500 still ought to buy one a lot of performance in the used market.

Panasonic (Technics) sold zillions of DD tables for a reason. Their tts were tremendous values on the market of the time.

I was a snooty European tt audiophile in those days (belt drive, suspended subassemblies, and light, straight arms), and I looked down my nose at the massmarket Japanese hardware. The benefit of four decades of hindsight helps me realize how narrow-minded I was. Those Euro-tts were (and are) great, but the Japanese DDs are fine equipment for enjoying records (which was really what most folks want -- and probably still should be, for most folks, the primary goal).

The one caveat, take care to avoid an old tt that was, as they say, rode hard and put away wet. Check the bearings for play in both planes, make sure the drive system is running smooth and quiet (and on speed). CLA, as the camera guys call it (cleaning,lubrication and adjustment) may well be needed -- but all in all there's really not much to go wrong with those old workhorses.

Of course, you (the OP) will need a phono preamp unless your amp or preamp has one on-board. Decent phono preamps are available starting at around 50 smackers (I am specifically thinking of the Art DJPre II http://artproaudio.com/turntable_preamps/product/djpre_ii/

Whoa, that got voluminous, didn't it? sorry...

DSC_2464 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

maxward

Amen to mhardy6647! I was also a snooty European tt audiophile. I bought a Thorens in 1973 and still use it regularly. At age 22, I couldn’t afford a Linn Sondek. You might find some of these used for a good price, but beware of condition issues and the suspended designs can be a little tweaky about setup and placement.

hochpt21

I agree with good deals being had on the used market, but part of it depends on how "handy" or "involved" the OP wants to be.

A used table can be a gamble, and need service, or a new cartridge/stylus etc...

New tables in his price range usually come pretty much dummy proof, and ready to plug and play.

mhardy6647

hochpt21 wrote: »

I agree with good deals being had on the used market, but part of it depends on how "handy" or "involved" the OP wants to be.

A used table can be a gamble, and need service, or a new cartridge/stylus etc...

I agree 100.00%, for the record.

New tables in his price range usually come pretty much dummy proof, and ready to
plug and play.

hmmm -- I dunno. I concur that, e.g., the U-turn is set up to run right out of the box (which is commendable). From my perspective, the cheap modern tts* just strike me as a little delicate. I am not sure that delicate = dummy proof.

Again, I am (seriously) not anti-new-tt, just providing some counterpoint, as is my wont

____________________
* unfortunately, "cheap" in today's tt market, is sub-$1000. (not my idea!)

hochpt21

I appreciate your thoughts and experience. And for the record...I am definitely not anti-used TT. Used is how I purchased all 3 of mine.

[Deleted User]

My semi-humble recommendation for a turntable that works to help extract information from a record is anything that has either a Rega RB200 or RB300 tonearm on it. If you want to hear what's on the record that arm is hard to beat any any reasonable price.

dromunds

^^ And don't forget about the cartridge. Good arm and good cartridge.

mhardy6647

The Rega arm is a classic; I cannot argue with that!

Sumerian

Looks like it's not that easy to zero down on a TT.

mhardy6647

Sumerian wrote: »

Looks like it's not that easy to zero down on a TT.

It's like everything else -- if there were only one great tt at any given price point, there'd only be one tt available at any given price point.

Sort of like cars. I mean, somebody buys Fiat-Chrysler products!

[Deleted User]

We would recommend a Rega turntable with a Grado FTE+, an NAD 3020 integrated amp and a pair of Spica TC50 on Chicago speaker stands and the combination would absolutely amaze owners. I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't people still listening to that system.
Put a Grado or Shure M97 on a well cared for second hand (if you're going that route) Rega turntable and if there's any money left get a basic Nitty Gritty record cleaner. Nothing could be finer!

mhardy6647

Heh. I still have a Grado FTE+ Heck of a cartridge, it was, for thirteen dollars.

Grado stylus pull3 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

I'd like to think that the modern Grado Black is still in the same league. A l'il pricier, though.

Ken's recommendation is a solid one (no surprise) -- I tend to think of the Regas as enthusiast's turntables, but mostly because they're very basic (not because they aren't good). In terms of the Rega arms, the RB200, RB300 and some of their kin have appeared on many, many very good turntables (some at pretty rarefied price points). They're good arms.

[Deleted User]

I loved the cardboard tube the Grado came in, with the plastic tool to take out the stylus if the owner ever needed to. Grado put a small amount of a black sticky material where the stylus joined the main body.
That cartridge and the Sennheiser HD414 headphones were the best values in audio ever.

Viking64

KennethSwauger wrote: »

I loved the cardboard tube the Grado came in, with the plastic tool to take out the stylus if the owner ever needed to. Grado put a small amount of a black sticky material where the stylus joined the main body.
That cartridge and the Sennheiser HD414 headphones were the best values in audio ever.

I still have the one of those cardboard Grado tubes. It is black and green, if my memory serves me well.

mhardy6647

KennethSwauger wrote: »

I loved the cardboard tube the Grado came in, with the plastic tool to take out the stylus if the owner ever needed to. Grado put a small amount of a black sticky material where the stylus joined the main body.
That cartridge and the Sennheiser HD414 headphones were the best values in audio ever.

Folks used to sometimes scrape the black damping goo out of their cartridges -- oops.

I have the tube which "my" FTE+ came in. I will dig it out & take a photo anon.

I bought it for my parents and installed it in a Philips tt I'd passed along to them. It served them well for years, and I ultimately inherited it back. It's still installed on a tt here... now, just don't ask me which tt it is currently on. All I remember is that it's on a Japanese "SME-style" headshell

Viking64

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Folks used to sometimes scrape the black damping goo out of their cartridges -- oops.

Guilty.

mhardy6647

This is a guilt free zone; it's OK

mhardy6647

Viking64 wrote: »

KennethSwauger wrote: »

I loved the cardboard tube the Grado came in, with the plastic tool to take out the stylus if the owner ever needed to. Grado put a small amount of a black sticky material where the stylus joined the main body.
That cartridge and the Sennheiser HD414 headphones were the best values in audio ever.

I still have the one of those cardboard Grado tubes. It is black and green, if my memory serves me well.

whoa, talk about inflation.

When I bought the one pictured above, the price was $13. The FC+ (or FCR+ or whatever it was called), with conical stylus, was $9.

Viking64

I just looked for mine to see what the price was, but I have yet to find it. I know it contains all of my cartridge screws and what-not, but I haven't seen it in a while.

dromunds

You wanna talk about inflation? I paid $3.00 to see Fleetwood Mac the first time, with Bob Welch

mhardy6647

I'm not exactly sure where mine is at the moment, either.
It is either upstairs or downstairs. Possibly both. Darn that darned Schrödinger!

Viking64

dromunds wrote: »

You wanna talk about inflation? I paid $3.00 to see Fleetwood Mac the first time, with Bob Welch

I used to talk to Bob about guitars on his website back around 2003 or so. He wasn't always fast to respond, but he was always funny and informative.

Sumerian

Any feed back on the current onkyo TT?
May be i should pick a brand first and pick mid level TT?