What is the best all around Vintage Turntable?

I don't know about the very best, but it works for me - haven't had an urge to upgrade since I got it. JVC QL-A75

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Wow.. what a stunning TT. Very very nice.
 
... all overpriced IMHO--but great if you can get them used at a fair price.
As an aside: Agreed, but not only brand. Because of reputation and care often given to them, prices can be high, not unlike SL 1200's. Thirty year old Linn's can be a good value vs a new equal priced TT's. IMO.
 
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Vintage means basic mechanical turntable certainly pre- DD tables. I always wanted a Neumann or Gotham table with direct drive, They were expensive and could be noisy. The best was the Empire, maybe not the most dependable but the best. The advantage to Thorens was you could put any arm on it you wanted. Which is why I preferred them. I bought 121 because I used MC cartridges and the steel table of the early 124 wasn't compatible. Bur as soon as AR started the revolution, I bought a 125, the hand writing was on the wall for the noisy pre 125 tables.
 
After almost 50 years of listening to and owning so many good turntables, listing all the best "oldies" would be long. I'm going to throw out a couple that usually fly under the radar. I don't own either one, but I did at one time decades ago.

One is the JVC QL-10 from the late 1970s and early 1980s. This monster retailed for about $1800 (almost 6K today) after you added a nice tonearm and the fancy VPI base, but you had a challenger for the very best analogue rig out there. The other one rarely mentioned is the Thorens TD-160 Super. Much cheaper than a Linn, Oracle, SP-10, QL-10, or other SOTA candidates back then, it was one fine sounding rig with a good arm and cartridge. Some called it a poor man's Linn. That model is now at least getting some attention with the Vinyl Nirvana mods.
 
I have a Denon DP-80 in a Denon DK-2000G Plinth stored in my closet and I have No Idea how it sounds, I have been meaning to buy a Tone Arm and cartridge for a while now But unfortunately I have No Clue what I am doing when it comes to looking for a tone arm and cartridge. I am open to suggestions from people who are familiar with turn tables and tone arms. My Preamp is a Nakamichi CA-5II and from what I am told these have a real nice Phono section.
Mark


 
I have a Denon DP-80 in a Denon DK-2000G Plinth stored in my closet and I have No Idea how it sounds, I have been meaning to buy a Tone Arm and cartridge for a while now But unfortunately I have No Clue what I am doing when it comes to looking for a tone arm and cartridge. I am open to suggestions from people who are familiar with turn tables and tone arms. My Preamp is a Nakamichi CA-5II and from what I am told these have a real nice Phono section.
Mark



That's a nice table and worth getting it going again.

I especially like the Shelby in your photo bucket!
 
Thanks dcmfan, I have been meaning to get that TT up and running for a while now, I am looking into a tone arm now, I just want to make sure I buy the correct tone arm and cartridge..
BTW,
That is a Barn Find 67 Shelby GT-500 that we pulled from a garage where it sat for 35 years, we changed all the fluids, Cleaned out the gas tank and put a battery in it and she fired right up. We will have the car at MCACN this November and about 3 months after the GT-500 was found a friend pulled a 69 MACH-1 428-CJ that was in a guys shed behind his house in NJ where it sat for almost 30 years. The owner had the car painted and he was so disgusted about the 50K it cost and the terrible job they did he put the car away and just let it sit. It is coming down to me in 2 weeks and I have to fix the mess they created. I haven’t touched a Mustang in over 40 years and in 6 months time I wound up with 3 of them to do. The other is an Eleanor the owner wants me to change.






 
i've had a handful of the tables listed here, and i still go back to my sony ps x70 as a totaly forgiving ease of use daily driver
 
Someone posted 'vintage means basic….pre- DD'.
Isn't direct drive basic? Its direct drive, direct, straight to the point, no middle man, no fluff, no extra parts, belts, or what have ya to get in the way, such as indirect drive?
Best vintage turntable for me is the Technics SL-1200mk2. Stock. Over 25 years of daily use and not one single problem; the pop-up light was replaced when it went out, but I wouldn't call that a problem. Pitch control, start/stop, etc- spot on!
I don't know of anything of mine that can hold the title for functioning trouble free- for so long- and still be able to make me smile from enjoyment of using it, to the pleasure of listening.
My old 20? inch RCA color television lasted from the beginning days of Atari to well after college graduation. Wow. But that doesn't count for this thread.
My all around vintage turntable vote to be called 'the best' is the Technics SL-1200mk2.
 
I disagree. I certainly consider 70's DD turntables to be vintage. I cannot imagine how they are not. Some great 70's DD TT's too ;)
 
In response to the OP's question, for me it's the one works well enough to use. I've got 1 table that requires a complete and total restoration, and one that just needs some adjusting. 3 are working exceptionally well and are each on their own system in the living room. Always keep a restored rig waiting nearby, you may just need it sooner than you think.

Biggles
 
Hmm, which one?
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Perhaps, in the end, it's the one you happily choose to go to every day.
That picture is beautiful. As a fairly recent Quad 57 owner...realizing I haven played any vinyl on them yet. Or on my KEF LS50's...what?!

I don't have much experience with vintage TT's, having only owned a Thorens TD166. Vs my newer Rega RP-1, it was a toss up. Thorens was a lot cheaper!
 
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