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melofelo
Addicted Member
It's a good turntable with a very good tonearm. I have the rd-60 which was the 3 point suspended version , the rd50 being a simpler fixed plinth design, both from around 1987 or thereabouts. I bought my rd60 in 1988 and it is still my main turntable. I may have an original review of the rd50 somewhere..I'll have a dig and post if i find it. Perfomance-wise the rd50 would have been pitched directly at the rega planar 2 of the day and should be in the same ball park sound quality wise perhaps with a tad more bass extension via the more substantial plinth. The arm itself is worth buying the turntable for imho although I'd be tempted to barter the price down a bit unless it is in excellent cosmetic condition. Most important of all is to check that the tonearm's pivot bearings have no slop , no clicks and moves freely at the pivot side to side without binding and up and down without and resistance or play.. High quality wiring were a feature of this arm and it's well suited to medium compliance cartridges (with the arm itself weighing it at around 11.5gm effective mass , allowing a fairly wide choice or cartridges to be used with it). The lack of a removable headshell is also a good thing , even if it means it's less convenient for frequent cartridge swaps. All it needs to get it up an running is an AT-95E cartridge and you'll have a very decent analogue front end. DO also check the belt tension as I think it is a square section design which is not easy to find nowadays unless you can find an ebay seller that makes after market versions.
tune up link here:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/ariston-rd60-tune-up.430311/
tune up link here:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/ariston-rd60-tune-up.430311/
davelarz
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the info Melo. I actually ended up buying an AR the Turntable that is pretty minty, I must say. But that RD-50 definitely weighed on me... it's still available I think, and I think the guy came down to 150. Ariston just doesn't seem to generate much buzz on the market despite the fact that they are great tt's.
