Best uncomplicated Japanese "audiophile" TT

The Japanese consumer electronics companies made many mid level and high price turn tables.

Not sure which one would qualify as " audiophile " ? :idea:

On another thread, you didn't even have to have hifi equipment to be considered an audiophile, so therefore, all turntables are "audiophile".
 
There are so many good Japanese turntables out there. You just need to dial in what you're looking for. I love DD Technics tables, I will always recommend them, even their P-mount stuff, they are solid (besides those pesky dustcover tabs).
 
"as long as the Seller is well experienced at shipping Ebay is most likely the route I may very well have to take" Don't count on it, no matter what he says. Send very specific, step by step instructions — especially for a TT. And be clear: if he doesn't follow those instructions, your purchase is null and void. I even sent an empty box once, filled with packing materials, for a guy to ship a TT in... because it was clear he had no clue how to do it right.

I'm just helping out a fellow here locally (actually the guy who has the Hitachi for sale) with his latest purchase .....

NZ3EJv.jpg


Luckily he has received a refund from the eBay seller and the guy doesn't want it back. So far he's manged to straighten the bent tonearm rest and he's replaced the cartridge (needle bent sideways!) but he's not sure how bad a hit the tonearm took. And no, the feet weren't sheared off - they were missing and he has new ones on order. All I can say is, what a PITA!
 
I'm just helping out a fellow here locally (actually the guy who has the Hitachi for sale) with his latest purchase .....

NZ3EJv.jpg


Luckily he has received a refund from the eBay seller and the guy doesn't want it back. So far he's manged to straighten the bent tonearm rest and he's replaced the cartridge (needle bent sideways!) but he's not sure how bad a hit the tonearm took. And no, the feet weren't sheared off - they were missing and he has new ones on order. All I can say is, what a PITA!
Just sad to see a wonderful table in this horrible condition due to a sellers bad packing. When are sellers on ebay going to learn how to pack an object this big and heavy?:mad:
 
On line sales is where turntables like the Pioneer LTs go to die.
I won't share the pix of my VPI HW19 after it arrived, that was a bit of a rescue job.
 
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I wonder if Pioneer’s PL-550 would qualify— it’s the manual version (more or less) of the mighty PL-570.
 
Since were all throwing out some of the tables that we like, the Yamaha PF-1000 is a good table. I have another Yamaha table, a PX-2 and I think the PF-1000 is a better performer as long as you don't want auto functions.
 
True, but also usually on pallets with many other boxes. Not exactly being kicked around in a box while wrapped in a towel with a few packing peanuts or crumpled up newspaper.

:(
Also, the boxes said turntables were packed in were generally shipped with boxes of the same size and weight. Anything being sent by the mail has to contend with possibly having a package larger and/or heavier than it falling on top of it. To top it all off, turntables shipped from the factory had custom-made packing materials included, and most importantly of all, the people packing them there actually followed the proper guidelines! :rolleyes:
-Adam
 
I paid close to that for mine. That was four years ago. In the last couple of years I have read three posts of people getting them off of craigslist for $350 to $450. They don't come up often but usually come in at about that price range with the exception of a few Ebay hijackers.
 
Not what I'm seeing from looking at recent offers / sales ... close to double seems about the norm ... but YMMV of course. Should clarify also our OP is in Canadian $ ... so he is working with $375 US.
 
There's one ... Technics SL-1700 (original version) posted up to Vancouver craigslist today. Bit of a fixer-upper. Well within budget.
 
I paid close to that for mine. That was four years ago. In the last couple of years I have read three posts of people getting them off of craigslist for $350 to $450. They don't come up often but usually come in at about that price range with the exception of a few Ebay hijackers.

Sure has gone up a lot since I got my Yamaha PF-800 and spare headshell. :)
 
QL A7 is a fine one. The arm is highly sought on its own; it has a unique headshell-locking mechanism, much better than the standard SME method, but it still takes all standard h'shells. A friend has one, and took me through all its fine points — he was a professional audio critic for several magazines, and knows a thing or two.
 
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