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Buddy Looking for a NEW TT in the $500 + - Range

antrat

antrat

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I resurrected an old Pioneer PLA 45D for him, replaced buzzing micro switches but it still has an issue shutting down.

What's the best bang for the buck out there in this price range right now?

Will probably stay with his Shure MM cart instead of going a coil and preamp.

I told him to look at Rega...
 
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justjed2 said:
For $500, I'd look at a Fluance RT85 with a 2M Blue...
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Funny, He had suggested that very same model. For 500, with a $200 cart, cant imagine it's much of a TT.

Guess I'm just too old school, most high end TT's I have weigh 25 pounds or more, that Fluance weighs in at 16. Is weight still a thing these days?

Wish my TT's had those feet on them...
 
It is, and it isn't. Rega goes for light weight and vibration dissipation, higher mass tables go for vibration absorption. There are merits to both approaches, neither is perfect for every situation.
Fluance can afford to supply the 2M Blue because of bulk purchase discounts. It's not high-end, by any measure, but it's a decent table, with a decent cart, for a reasonable price.

They also save money by internet direct sales, and minimal advertising. Word of mouth is a bigger selling point, in many cases.
 
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justjed2 said:
It is, and it isn't. Rega goes for light weight and vibration dissipation, higher mass tables go for vibration absorption. There are merits to both approaches, neither is perfect for every situation.
Fluance can afford to supply the 2M Blue because of bulk purchase discounts. It's not high-end, by any measure, but it's a decent table, for a reasonable price.

They also save money by internet direct sales, and minimal advertising. Word of mouth is a bigger selling point, in many cases.
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Ah, got it, Thank You for the clarification on the weight issue.
 
It's twice the price, but probably twice the table, the U-turn Orbit Theory is made in the USA, has a one-piece magnesium alloy tonearm, and comes stock with a 2M Blue, or a Bronze, for a very reasonable upcharge. This is the one I'm saving my pennies for.
 
justjed2 said:
Hell, I'd go for that, but the OP DID specify NEW TT in the thread title....
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I think he has just become disenchanted with his used TT. It took me a while to track down the issue with his Pioneer and to repair ir and to tell the truth, I never had a good benchmark on that table as to what worked and what didnt before I started in on it. I didnt mess with any adjustments so I believe it had that issue and the auto return problem before it came into my hands. I did DL the service manual and we tried following the procedures for adjusting the shut off and auto return but to no avail, no matter what we did.

Think he just wants something new and KNOWN to operate flawlessly out of the gate that he can ride for a few years.

If you have any more NEW suggestions, I am sure he would appreciate it as he looks to me for advice but I am so far out of the loop, I look to the brain trust here at AK!

Thanks everyone, much appreciated!
 
justjed2 said:
Hell, I'd go for that, but the OP DID specify NEW TT in the thread title....
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Ya, I realized that but I was looking at this the other day and it just drew my attention, what a beautiful table. If I didn't already have more tables than fingers on one hand.......

I wish I could offer different advice on a new table within budget but there really aren't any from Project or Rega. No personal experience with some of the AT Technics clones, or Fluance and U-turn tables but I think I would lean in that direction other than the AT decks.

I could highly recommend the Clearaudio Concept but it's way out of budget:dunno:

My recommendation is always get the best table you can afford and go with a budget cartridge until able to upgrade. A high end table gets more out of a budget cartridge than a high end cartridge will out of a budget table.
 
antrat said:
I resurrected an old Pioneer PLA 45D for him, replaced buzzing micro switches but it still has an issue shutting down.

What's the best bang for the buck out there in this price range right now?

Will probably stay with his Shure MM cart instead of going a coil and preamp.

I told him to look at Rega...
Click to expand...

Not in the USA for that price. Planar 3 is the sweet spot. And that will double or more the budget.
 
antrat said:
Guess I'm just too old school, most high end TT's I have weigh 25 pounds or more, that Fluance weighs in at 16. Is weight still a thing these days?
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Largely depends on the design of the turntable. Many of today's turntables are made with lightweight MDF or particle board plinths, so 12-16lbs would be pretty common for those. Most of these lightweight designs have been around for decades at this point. Not my personal favorite, but popular.
 
$500 new doesn't buy much anymore. It's basically Hanpin or Ya Horng OEM with loads of different marketing companies as branding, or something like a lower-end Pro-Ject. Your buddy would need to double his budget to get to something "pretty good" for new.
 
The Fluance is fine, pretty good even.
The majority of people slagging on it have not even seen one, much less listened to one in operation.

Mine sat on a pine entertainment center flanked by subwoofers between 4 and seven feet away.

Listening to extreme metal packed with rapid fire double bass drums and down tuned bass guitars at volumes my neighbors claim is excessive, resulted in no audible distortion, skipping or feedback during playback and no discernable speed fluctuations.

With results like that, it should be more than capable of reproducing the "audiophile" low effort avant-garde fart jazz that people pretend to enjoy.
 
With results like that, it should be more than capable of reproducing the "audiophile" low effort avant-garde fart jazz that people pretend to enjoy.

I don't think audiophiles like fart jazz, I think they like fart classical symphonic opera music
 
antrat said:
I resurrected an old Pioneer PLA 45D for him, replaced buzzing micro switches but it still has an issue shutting down.

What's the best bang for the buck out there in this price range right now?

Will probably stay with his Shure MM cart instead of going a coil and preamp.

I told him to look at Rega...
Click to expand...
Rega is an excellent choice, but they now start at $595. Worth it, I think, but if it's over budget then it's over budget.

I've owned two turntables that are still under $500 and still on the market that gave me a lot of pleasure. One is the fully automatic Denon DP-300F, and the other is the Audio Technica LP120XUSB. I liked the stock cartridge on the Denon, but it also worked very well with a Grado Green, Shure M97xE, and Sumiko Black Pearl. It did not fare too well with the Sumiko Oyster, really struggling to track well on musical peaks. My dealer thought that the arm bearings maybe weren't quite up to it. The Oyster did, however, work very well on the AT-LP120XUSB and handily outperformed the stock AT-VM95 (I kept the stock cartridge on a separate headshell to use with a 78rpm stylus).

Another interesting option under $500 is the Music Hall mmf-1.5. I haven't heard it, but I like what reviewers I trust have said about it.

I personally would not care for the RT85. I've never liked the 2M line of cartridges, and CNET, anyway, found the combination of 2M Blue and acrylic platter overly bright, cautioning that it would need a "mellow" system to pair well. The RT85N with Nagaoka might be interesting, though that's not a cartridge I've ever heard. My preference in the Reference line would be for the RT82, which avoids the acrylic platter, has a cartridge that I know I like (the Ortofon OM10), and is $200 cheaper.
 
jrtrent said:
Rega is an excellent choice, but they now start at $595. Worth it, I think, but if it's over budget then it's over budget.

I personally would not care for the RT85. I've never liked the 2M line of cartridges, and CNET, anyway, found the combination of 2M Blue and acrylic platter overly bright, cautioning that it would need a "mellow" system to pair well. The RT85N with Nagaoka might be interesting, though that's not a cartridge I've ever heard. My preference in the Reference line would be for the RT82, which avoids the acrylic platter, has a cartridge that I know I like (the Ortofon OM10), and is $200 cheaper.
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How is the plastic fantastic crosley-ish build of the Rega worth $600.00?

I wouldn't trust CNET if they 'reported' that water was wet.
 
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