Turntable advice

[majick47]

I'd check out the Signet cartridge carefully and not right off the bat toss it, as said Signet was ATs premium line of accessories and cartridges, if still in good shape with modest hours it may only require a cleaning with stylus fluid.

 

[jcidave]

Nate: I agree on the Signet cartridge. There might be some threads here in AK that will help you locate the correct Audio Technica replacement stylus. I know there are on the Vinyl Engine if you do a search. I hope to get a JICO stylus for my Signet TK7SU sometime this year. I hope you enjoy your AMT-4 speakers. I refurbed a pair last year. Always thought they were the sleeper in the ESS line. Big ESS sound in a smaller lower cost package. Enjoy.

 

[Rybeam]

I own about 20 turntables, many Duals, old Garrards an AR ES-1,a nice old Sansui, have head shells with at least 5 different cartridges ready to go and years of etc............

My current and favorite table is a Technics direct drive automatic old enough that the base is cast aluminum. The base material may not be important, but the pace and sound of the direct drive is killer and noticeable over other drive methods.. The convenience of being an automatic is very nice too.

The cartridge is a Shure M97xe with a Jaco SAS stylus Sitting on a brick fire place mantle, perfectly level, exact overhang. The table and its placement, stylus and set up are half of it.

Get it all for $200-$300, than buy nice clean vinyl the other half of turntable nirvana. This is my 50 years of playing records summation of the often expensive pursuit of table nirvana. All of the above is IMO.

 

[malden]

One thing that surprised me when I upgraded from a low-end Technics SL-220 to a Thorens TD160, was that the Thorens sounded WAY better with the cheapo AT cartridge it came with, than the Technics with an expensive Grado 8Mz stylus on it.
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That is an excellent point. The turntable has as much to do with the quality of sound as the cartridge.

 

[malden]

@nateyaro , if you are considering purchasing a turntable from an online vendor and it will be shipped, proceed with caution.

There are a handful of vendors that have the means to properly prepare and pack a turntable for shipping. That's not to say that if not packed properly, it will arrive damaged, but the chances of that happening are very high.

Good luck...

 

[dfunghi]

The AR XA does look really appealing. I think it will be very difficult to find one out here if I didn't use Ebay. I understand the apprehension toward it however.

The XA and XB (which I prefer for the cuing) are pretty easy to ship and quite awesome. You can find a complete but needing work one for $100-$150 if you are quick. Then IMO send it to Marc or Dave and have it redone which will eat up most of your budget. I own three AR and all but one have been to see Marc and I would consider them a match for any $$$$ I have heard elsewhere. The third one will head east soon. You can start out with plenty of nice $100 cart setups and build from there as money allows. For sure you should subscribe here and put an AD in BT. I just sold a very nice, recently fully serviced and complete Thorens TD 150 MK II with a shure M91 and very low hour N91ED for $240. Deals like that are not hard to find here from fellow members.

If a manual TT is not for you there are many fine auto return or full auto TT in your budget. I believe there was just a nice PL 518 for well under your budget on BT. There was a great KD 550 for under $300 on BT as well.

Be patient and do not buy from anyone that says they will "take to FedEx for professional packing". TT need a lot of disassembly prior to shipping and FedEx will not do any of that.

 

[MisterDK]

Not long ago, I paid about $60 shipped for an AT LS500 cartridge with an excellent original stylus. About the same time, I bought a very nice looking (but in need of massaging) mid ‘80s Systemdek IIX turntable for under $400 shipped, and I stuck ‘em together... Both of these came from that dreaded auction site.

After getting the Systemdek cleaned & lubed I replaced the phono plugs, the crumbling foam spring dampers (it’s a “springy” table), then spent some time leveling and adjusting..

This combo sounds fantastic!

Cost less than $500 total, and I prefer its sound to that of my Rega Planar 3 with a Denon DL103r.
Only thing I dislike about the Systemdek.. It needs a wall mount. Footfall -is- a problem with this one.

I’d highly recommend shopping for a decent, vintage turntable, especially if you don’t mind tinkering. Lots of interesting stuff out there if you look around.