Turntables

Used or New? Hit the thrift stores and bag a Quadraflex or some such for next to nothing. I bagged a Reference 610T with Grado cart for $7 about a month ago.

I have my eye on Audioadvisor.com 's offering on the Music Hall MMF 2.1, Stereophile recommended for right at 3 Franklins...



Music Hall MMF 2.1

Cheers,
Russ

There are many options. You can go to CC/BB and get a new low guality, thin platter whatever for about $100. Everything will be working, new and fresh. Personally, this would be my last choice, but it's an easy solution that deserves some consideration.

You can get a used one from pawn, thrift-store, E-Bay, etc. This has potential, but is very risky. The motor might need rebuilding, new belt, etc., but you might get a gem cheap. If they ship it, ask them to remove the platter and tape down the tone-arm. If you can listen to it and it keeps has a low wow & flutter (keeps accurate speed), get it. Throw on a new cartridge or stylus and you're golden. Thorens, Dual, Technics SL1200 are good.

Check out music stores that sell instruments and pro DJ equipment. While in any other category, I wouldn't consider Gemini or Numark to be Audiophile, but in this category they're hard to beat. Stay away from the "ScratchMasters", and you can get a new, heavy, vibration absorbant, accurate speed turtable with a decent cartridge pretty cheap.

Turtable considerations: You can get a more accurate speed out of direct drive, but belt drives usually sound better (isolation from motor). Quartz-lock vs. strobe, I'll take the strobe (variable pitch), I'd rather be behind the wheel than a passenger. I mostly look for a heavy platter and a quality tone-arm. 78 rpm sounds great anddeserves consideration. Heavier platters absorb any speed fluctuations and the tone-arm (counter-weighting) put it all together. For cartridge/stylus, I like the Shure VI. A great sounding cartridge that (back in the day) lowered the price without sacrificing quality and you can get new stylus at Radio Shack.

If you can listen, "accidently" bump it with various degrees of force. You don't want to find out that when you turn-up the music, vibrations will send your needle skidding across your favorite absolete quadrophonic album.

If you are still looking I'll make a suggestion. I was just helping a buddy of mine look for a new turntable and we came across a pretty beefy Sony. We tried CC and BB first but they Sony and Technics models they sell are really fly-weights...if you have hardwood floors or are just a big guy like me you would have some skipping problems...also no counter-weight on the tone arm.
We went to a local audio specialty store and found an all-manual Sony PS-LX350H that is very similar to my old Technics 1200. The store was out of them and wouldn't sell the display so he found it on-line at Crutchfield for 199.00. It has great big feet, a pretty heavy platter, adjustable counter-weight and (of course) pitch control...comes with a cartridge too, although at this price you might upgrade to a Shure or Grado. Good luck!