Luxman PD289 who's got one?

[Frankie's Market]

I just picked up a Luxman PD 289, I have yet to start it up. It appears to be in nice cosmetic shape. Before diving back into turntables ( yes, I confess, I sold my turntable 25 years ago...) are there any Luxman owners that can chime in on proper set up and getting it ready ? Thanks! Ed

 

[ETI_5000]

I've got a Luxman PD-288, which is identical mechanically and electrically, but with a slightly different design tonearm (different headshell). It's been a great turntable. They were made for Luxman by Micro Seiki, who were one of the best turntable OEM's from Japan, and the tonearms are superb. Reviews when they were new proved that they outperformed some opposition brand turntables with supposedly superior specs, as Micro Seiki specification numbers were traditionally very conservative by comparison to other brands. So they usually performed somewhat better than the numbers suggested, particularly for rumble - those Micro Seiki bearings were very quiet!

If you don't have a manual, you can find one here http://www.vinylengine.com/library/luxman/pd-289.shtml . It shows you all the setup procedures for the tonearm and operation. It depends on what sort of cartridge you use - ones which track at less than 2g match with the tonearm best, as it's a relatively light effective mass tonearm. I've used a Shure M91ED (tracking force 1.25g), Shure M97xE (1.25g, or 1.75g with brush down) and later upgraded to a Denon DL-103D (1.5g), and all worked well with my PD-288.