What TT's do you folks have

I am very interested in your thoughts regarding "The Classic."
I wish I were more of an expert in the turntable field. There are a few resources online about The Classic, but they are mostly pro reviews from people who may have some sort of stake in Pro-ject. The deck itself is a bit of a conundrum. It occupies a difficult position in the market--too expensive to be considered budget; not exotic enough to be a high end contender. It will be interesting to see how it fares in the long run.

Here's my take. First off, it's exceptionally quiet. The motor is mounted to the outer frame which is separated from the central plinth via sorbothane spheres. The assembly containing the platter and tonearm floats above the frame with what appears to be just the right amount of cushion. Not too springy, but not too stiff. I'd imagine that it took a lot of prototyping to get this just right, but it's beautiful in its simplicity and it is effective.

The tonearm is not as prone to picking up stray sympathetic vibrations from speakers/subs as the Carbon Debut that I own. It has a core of lightweight aluminum sandwiched in carbon fibre, and the main bearing is supposedly very high quality Japanese construction. The gimbal is adequate and it allows for azimuth adjustment and vertical tracking alignment (hope I'm using the right terms here). The caveat is that VTA is fiddly and the assembly tends to dive as you are tightening the adjustment screws. It is a challenge getting the (uhf) allen wrench into the screw slot without completely screwing up the alignment and having to start over. Frustrating, but doable if you are patient and steady handed. Azimuth was good from the factory, so I have not had the pleasure of trying that yet.

It came with an Ortofon 2m Silver which is a slight upgrade from the red. Same bonded tip and cantilever, just some silver coils. I upgraded to a nude diamond Ortofon Blue immediately. Since I purchased mine, I have noticed that some dealers are selling the Classic sans cartridge for a $50 discount. I say, get the Silver for $50 and keep it on hand for utility. It retails for around $100. Use it with your badly damaged LP's.

The design of the tonearm head is sweet with the drop handle at a nearly perfect angle. The felt mat is crap, but not as crappy as the ones that come with the Carbon Debut line. Anyway, I read that this heavy, heavy platter needs a cork mat to make it sound its best, so that's what I'm using. The platter is flawless and looks like it was carved from a billet of high grade aluminum, but who knows. Maybe theres info about that. Anyway, you gotta show that sucker off between LP sessions because it is something to see. Just use the included cotton gloves when handling it. The platter is damped on the underside with some sort of Sorbothane impregnated material and if you tap on the platter with a chop stick, there is only a staccato percussive sound, no ringing or metallic noise whatsoever. The inner plinth is some sort of metalized mdf, but it looks like brushed aluminum and is easy to keep clear of dust and fingerprints.

There are three adjustable feet, supposedly vibration damped, but I'm using those Sorbothane discs underneath each of them. The feet seem really cheap to me. It really lets down an otherwise thoughtful design. The deck weighs a ton, well maybe 20-25 pounds. Looked it up. 22.5 pounds. Not a bad guess! The wiring harness goes straight down the center of the gimbal, again a very thoughtful design feature. The counterweight is, again, beautiful polished aluminum, very substantial but difficult to fine tune.

The sound has got to be very, very good with all of these features. Everything about the design is devoted to a singular purpose--high quality reproduction of vinyl. Nothing appears to be for show and the fit and finish are exceptional with one very insignificant niggle: The 4 edges along the top metallic layer of the inner plinth could use a light filing. But you won't notice it from more than 6" away.

Notice, I am avoiding how it sounds. To my ears, it's wonderful. But I might have a slightly different paradigm about listening to vinyl than most normal people. I like the fact that Robert Fripp chose to reissue the original mixes and stereo masters of the early King Crimson albums. Just fresh lacquer. So, Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part one is barely above the noise floor of the vinyl. It's a visceral experience of vinyl noise mixed with weird percussion. Book of Saturday hits you like a freight train. I like how Fripp uses the inherent vinyl artifacts as part of the listening experience. So, perfect reproduction is not part of my thinking when it comes to vinyl playback. I am, as a result, a very unqualified judge of high end vinyl reproduction, but I'm guessing that the Pro-ject Classic is more than up to the task. It also has some sort of speed control device built in which aids in stability. Does it sound like a lot of TT for the money to you folks? Cheap plastic feet notwithstanding? And did I mention that it is dead quiet? Zero, zip, nada, niet, ach du lieber es ist sehr, sehr schön. Das ist ein schnitteges Plattenspieler or do you say Drehscheibe?
 
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IMG_4982.JPG IMG_4980.JPG IMG_4984.JPG IMG_4988.JPG Just added this to my family of audio equipment happily adopted from the humble and extremely knowledgeable Mr Pig the AR XA thats been Morinfied with all the trimmings and custom Lacewood with a pearl cream top. It sounds so good I can't stop listening nor looking at it.

Audiofreak71
 
I L O V E MICRO SEIKI !! IMO Aesthetically, they are about the most beautiful units ever produced. Never had one though :( Soon :)
I seem to come across lots of turntables. I buy them, clean and fix them, and sometimes sell or trade up. I only have three in use at any given time. A lot of them I buy just for the vintage cartridges and styli. The most I ever paid for one was $275 (the Denon DP-61L). My favorite is the Denon DP-45F.
Currently laying around:
Bang & Olufsen : Beogram 2400 (B&O MMC 4000 cart/styl)Belt drive, fully automatic
Denon : DP-62L : (Grace F-9 cart / Grace Ruby styl)Direct Drive, semi automatic [1 of 2 tone arms, 2 of 3 weights]
Denon : DP-45F : (Grado M2+ cart / Grado M2? gold styl)direct drive, fully auto w/scan (in use)
Denon : DP-51F : (Grado prestige black1 cart / Grado black 8mzv styl)direct drive, auto [needs: Denon PCL-50 headshell,
new cover]

Harman Kardon : T-65C : (Shure V15V MR type V(5) cart / VN5MR styl)Belt drive, semi automatic (new belt)
Harman Kardon : T-60 : (x cart / x styl)belt drive, semi auto (new belt)
Hitachi : HT 460 : (Audio Technica AT130 LC-OFC cart / AT130E styl)Direct drive (new stylus)(in use)
Pioneer : PL-L800 : (Audio Technica cart / styl) linear track, direct drive, qrtz lock, full auto [cover slightly marred, new stylus]
Technics : SL-1300 : (?? cart & Empire styl) Direct drive, fully automatic [generic headshell]
Gemini : XL-DD20 : (?? cart & generic styl) direct drive, semi auto, cleaning attachment [need 1 foot]
H H Scott : PS-17A (?? cart / ADC QLM30 styl) 1978, belt drive, semi auto (w/manual, new belt, new stylus)
JVC : L-A10 : (HiTec 103 cart & phansteihl 4213-DE styl) Belt drive, semi automatic (new stylus) [lid scratched]
Pioneer : PL-7 : (Audio Technica cart & styl) direct drive, full auto (w/manual)
Pioneer : PL-512 : (pickering NP/AC cart / Phansteihl styl)Belt drive, manual [cover cracked, new stylus]
Sansui : FR-D35 : (Sansui SC-50 cart & Shure-type styl)direct drive, semi auto
Sony : PS-LX55 II : (Shure cart & styl)direct drive, full auto, linear tracking [stylus repaired-needs replace]
Technics : SL-220 : (Audio Technica ? cart / AT ? styl)Belt drive, automatic (new belt)
Technics : SL-D20 (gen T4P cart/styl) Direct drive, semi automatic
Technics : SL D33 : (Pickering NP ATE cart / PDE styl)Direct drive, fully automatic, part of a communicating component sys
Technics : SL-Q2 (Stanton 681-EES cart/styl) Direct drive, quartz lock, semi automatic (in box), [lid tab chipped](stock)
Technics : SL-QD33 (technics P-23 cart/styl) Direct drive, quartz lock, full automatic
Dual : 1225 (Ortofon FF 15XE cart / Mk II styl)

 
I have a Pioneer PL 518, Pioneer PL 530, Pioneer PL-540, Pioneer PL-560, Pioneer PL-630, Pioneer PL-71, Sansui SRS 717, Sansui SR-838, Sansui, 929, Technics SL-1200, Technics SL-2000, My favorite is the Pioneer PL-630 and the Sansui 838. The SR-929 needs a tone arm as it was damaged in shipping to me.
 
I currently have:
Realistic Lab-395 (original Shure RS5T cartridge)
Denon DP-300f (two headshells, one with original cartridge and one with an Ortofan 2M Red)
Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (Ortofan 2M Red).

The Denon has a bum left channel I am trying to fix, and if so, I will either part with the Realistic or the Denon, passing it on to a friend who got a new apartment and thus wants a simple system.
 
Pioneer PL 30L II

I recently bought this from Japan on Ebay. I really wanted a PL 50, but I couldn't pass this up for the price ($530 shipped from Japan)

The plinth has been modified by adding 1/4" hardboard to the front and sides. It is also 5/8" taller so that I could add a 3/4" particle board bottom cover. I also filled much of the voids inside with MDF. It now weighs about 8lbs more than stock, about the same as a PL-50

Stripped and recovered with Rosewood veneer

It has also been recapped for reliability.

Fitted with a Sumiko Blue Point #2 it sounds great!
 

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Pioneer PL 30L II

I recently bought this from Japan on Ebay. I really wanted a PL 50, but I couldn't pass this up for the price ($530 shipped from Japan)

The plinth has been modified by adding 1/4" hardboard to the front and sides. It is also 5/8" taller so that I could add a 3/4" particle board bottom cover. I also filled much of the voids inside with MDF. It now weighs about 8lbs more than stock, about the same as a PL-50

Stripped and recovered with Rosewood veneer

It has also been recapped for reliability.

Fitted with a Sumiko Blue Point #2 it sounds great!

Another high quality veneer job from you Sir. Looks fantastic.
 
Technics SP10-MK2.

I probably have already posted this turntable, but a few changes were done since then.

First, I re-did the veneer. The previous veneer job had created a few bubbles (I had used contact cement and some spots had developed from the start. Not blaming the contact cement, I just probably screwed up. My other plinth for my Garrad 401 was with contact cement and it's flawless). In any event, I knew about the air bubbles on this job but I chose to ignore it. Well, every time I would look at the table it bothered the crap out of me. So I stripped the previous veneer (a gorgeous walnut burl) and re-did it with American Redwood veneer and used white glue this time.

Tenuto gun metal mat, Thomas Schick 12" arm, Ortofon LH9000 headshell, and lastly slapped on a Denon DL-103RPRO.

Very happy with the changes, the deck now looks half-decent and sounds amazingly nice, better than before. I haven't had the time for some critical listening but plan on it soon.

Some pics. We all love pics: ;)


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