My second post at AK and I want to thank you folks at AK and on the Turntable Forum. So I thought I'd begin by sharing my new to me toys here in this thread. I've been lurking for some time, but just joined the AK community recently.
I just acquired two turntables last week which replace a couple of starter TTs I've had for some time.
The first is Vintage and a rare version of the Elac mechanism. I was lucky to find a refurbished (cleaned and lubed) Braun PS600. I picked it up a week ago Thursday after listening to it, very excited. Then I won an eBay auction for an AR 'The Turntable' so two TTs in one week. The dividend? The V15 type V in the AR tone arm, it is still in very good shape and sings very well. So within a week, I've added a stacker running my Grado Black/8MZ cart. and added a new Shure to the shelf. I finally have a couple of TTs I can stick with.
Braun PS600 w/ Grado Black/8MX (thanks ddarch & marcmorin; 1.68gr/no anti-skate)
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AR The Turntable, Shure V15 type V
I added a George Merrill RRC mat, with vibrapods sitting on Merrill's 60 Durometer Decoupling Feet, new Vinyl Nirvana belt but nothing else done. The AR may get an arm or mod. down the road, but for now it's about washing and playing records.
You may forget that folks like me lurk, reading and learning from your great discussions, but it is wonderful to find such a group and much appreciated. Thanks again to all for your words, knowledge and advice.
Newly refurbished Empire 208 with Linn Basik arm and Shure cart for second system. Love the look of these Empires.
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Why the Audioquest mat? Did it come with the Groove Isolator? Fellow Oracleophiles want to know.Oracle Delphi II, Grace 707 tonearm, Audioquest mat, AudioTechnica Shibata cartridge
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I have a dozen or more "project" turntables in varying states of disrepair. Good excuse to do an inventory:
- Three Linn Sonkek LP12s, two with Valhalla PS and one pre-Valhalla
- One Thorens TD-125 MKII with Stax UA-7 tonearm
- One Thorens TD-150 MKII AB with stock arm, no headshell
- Thorens TD-124, no armboard or arm
- Two Bogen/Lenco heavy platters (B60 and B61) with stock arm
- Oracle Alexandria
- Rek-o-Kut L34H with Gray 208 16" transcription tonearm
- Rek-o-Kut Rondine Deluxe with Pritchard ADC wooden tonearm
- Audio Technica AT-LP240
The main problem I face with most of these turntables is the cost to get them working and sounding decent. If I could manage scrape $1K together, which would I choose? I tried using tonearms and cartridges I had on hand with unsatisfactory results. My vinyl sounded tired and scratchy even with my best attempt, a Linn LP12 Valhalla with Ultracraft AC-300 MKII tonearm and AT-440MLB cartridge. While doing a google search for tonearms under $1K I found NaimNatNod's post on the AT-LP1240 and couldn't believe such a thing could be purchased at that price point. I was able to purchase an AT-LP240 on ebay for roughly $360 and stuck the AT-440MLB on it. I am getting excellent results with this setup at roughly half the cost of what I thought I'd have to spend. I am finally getting the sound I had hoped for from my vinyl, open and uncompressed with plenty of dynamic range and inner detail all the way through to the end of the record. While I still intend to eventually get a couple of my older tables working, the AT-LP240 will be the basis for comparison.