I ended up jumping on my local Craigslist yesterday while taking a break at work and started to comb for interesting audio gear. No real good amps, no real amazing speakers, but in searching for TT's, I stumbled upon a listing for a good condition Lab-400. I thought about it for all of 30 seconds, looked them up on here and on eBay to see what they are selling for, and promptly called the seller.
He seemed like a good dude. Had some other gear he was trying to unload, none of which was overly amazing. But the pics and his description of this TT was right up my alley! He said it was in good condition with no major damage, and said the last time he used it, it sounded good. He had another TT he was using with a better cartridge, so this one was up for sale. He went on to tell me how he'd promised this to a friend, but that friend never came round to acquire it, so up for sale it went.
I'm hoping I can get some pics on here, but the pics don't do it justice... We ended up meeting up today and after a good once-over, I decided it was worth the $75 he was asking for and happily handed over my money. I figured, for the money, there was some risk in not testing it, but the guy seemed super honest, so I figured WTH and went for it.
After getting it home, I first hooked it up and put a beater vinyl on just to test. Sure enough, as described, it worked flawlessly! All the functions work as they should, and there's no weird issues at all. It just plays! After fiddling with the settings, I disconnected it and promptly went to work cleaning it. Not that much dust, and after cleaning every surface, I found absolutely no damage to the platter and nothing wrong with anything. Talk about a diamond in the rough!
It might sound crazy, but this is replacing a Marantz 6350Q that's got some cosmetic and functionality issues. I might try to work out the kinks in the Marantz, but darn it if I'm not pleased as punch with the automated function of the Realistic!
At any rate, I thought I'd take a moment to share. This is running through my Sansui 4000 to a pair of KEF Reference 102/2's and I'm pretty well satisfied with the setup. Next upgrade will definitely be a higher quality cartridge. It's got the factory original R1000E on it and seems to be pretty sonically clean.
He seemed like a good dude. Had some other gear he was trying to unload, none of which was overly amazing. But the pics and his description of this TT was right up my alley! He said it was in good condition with no major damage, and said the last time he used it, it sounded good. He had another TT he was using with a better cartridge, so this one was up for sale. He went on to tell me how he'd promised this to a friend, but that friend never came round to acquire it, so up for sale it went.
I'm hoping I can get some pics on here, but the pics don't do it justice... We ended up meeting up today and after a good once-over, I decided it was worth the $75 he was asking for and happily handed over my money. I figured, for the money, there was some risk in not testing it, but the guy seemed super honest, so I figured WTH and went for it.
After getting it home, I first hooked it up and put a beater vinyl on just to test. Sure enough, as described, it worked flawlessly! All the functions work as they should, and there's no weird issues at all. It just plays! After fiddling with the settings, I disconnected it and promptly went to work cleaning it. Not that much dust, and after cleaning every surface, I found absolutely no damage to the platter and nothing wrong with anything. Talk about a diamond in the rough!
It might sound crazy, but this is replacing a Marantz 6350Q that's got some cosmetic and functionality issues. I might try to work out the kinks in the Marantz, but darn it if I'm not pleased as punch with the automated function of the Realistic!
At any rate, I thought I'd take a moment to share. This is running through my Sansui 4000 to a pair of KEF Reference 102/2's and I'm pretty well satisfied with the setup. Next upgrade will definitely be a higher quality cartridge. It's got the factory original R1000E on it and seems to be pretty sonically clean.
