Picked up a KD-600 this weekend.

[Blue Shadow]

This may be my best CL purchase, but I did spend more than usual.

danewma04 posted a link to a KD-800 in York with pictures so we knew it was a KD-600, so I emailed about it. Seller said yes it was a KD-600 with a Fidelity Research cartridge (moving coil) on it. We talked and I found out it had a Fidelity Research FR64s tonearm and an MC-201 cartridge. I checked into these as I wanted a KD-600.

I talked to the seller about the amp needed for the phono and he said he has a Crown phono module that he will throw in. I ask him if he is willing to meet part way as he lives about 90 miles away. He says he'll get back to me.

He responds that he will be going to Lancaster on Saturday and we can meet, and that he has decided to sell the phono module with the power supply needed to run it as well as the preamp that uses the power supply. I agree to buy both the preamp system and the turntable. I posted pics of the preamp items in Vintage: http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=144352

The Kenwood KD-600 came with the FR tonearm, glassmat, hold down clamp, working hinges on the dust cover, all the manuals, poop sheet, and printout for a cartridge with an MC-201 manual. All in very nice condition.

I get home and hook up the table and listen at the bench. I sounds very nice, but the cartridge was not straight in the headshell. I pull it out and discover that it is not an MC-201 Fidelity Research cartridge but a Koetsu Black from the early days. A bottom of the line cartridge from Koetsu but expensive back then and very expensive today, no wonder it sounded so sweet. If this cartridge works well in the KD-650 (same table with a Kenwood arm) I may sell the FR64s as one just transacted on the bay for over $1200!!! wow. This TT buy has turned out to be one heck of a deal. Now I need to find more vinyl.

 

[arrow 68]

Kenwood made great TT's in the late 70's into the very early 80's. Sounds like you did very well. How much was everything? $400?

 

[marantzfan]

These poor tables have the Rodney Dangerfield complex on this board for some reason. Those of us who own them know the truth while most others don't give them any credit. Great table you got there!:thmbsp:

 

[BrocLuno]

NICE deal. have fun

 

[bolly]

saweeet-ness!!1! :thmbsp:

 

[redcoates7]

Welcome to the Kenwood ARCB club

Sounds like you've picked up one heck of a nice rig!

 

[Blue Shadow]

Well I finished up this CL deal this past week, yes 4 months after it started. The total $ cost was 375 since you asked. The completion of the deal was the pick-up of the cabinet for the Crown preamp and power supply.

I asked the seller about cabinets when I picked up the gear and he said he would ship them. I sent an email a few weeks later and just did not hear anything so since I was going to a friend's place in NoVA on May 22 I called the seller and asked if I could swing by and pick up the cabinets. He said sure, they'll be at the office and that he may not be there because of business. I only sent the one email because I knew this trip was coming up and I could swing by his place and save the shipping and the shipping damage.

I get to his office (he sells A/V solutions for the church school market in central PA and is a dbx and Rane dealer among others) and the receptionist shows me the cabinets as he was out. I was expecting a 2U and a 4U Crown cabinet, or maybe a 6U cabinet. I ended up with a 6U that holds both pieces, a 4U and a 3U. Three cabinets, one of which will hold both the preamp and the power supply. The other two...added to the collection.

A rack unit (U) is 1.75 inches so these cabinets are 10.5, 7 and 5.25 inches tall inside. They are all Crown JELN cabinets.

The boxes are in great shape. The 6U had the top and bottom strips of veneer across the front come loose so I removed those while my friend in VA repaired the broken strut in his car. I was just the technical adviser for that project. I reglued the strips with some contact cement from a new can he had. This did a nice job. Good to have fresh contact cement for this work.

Got home today and removed the excess cement and sanded the cabinets. These are in really nice condition. The 6U has the rack mount brackets in place. The other two do not. The 6U and 3U have the ventilation screens on the top, the 4U does not, it has a solid veneer top.

So this has turned out to be one heck of a CL deal. I'll be oiling the cabinets in the next few days and mounting the equipment in the 6U box. The others need the rack mount brackets. I'll post a pic soon.

Anyone know where to get rack mount brackets? If not available separately, I'll make some.

Back to the turntable. It is a very nice sounding unit. There seems to be less noise from this cartridge than with others. This is now my third ARCB TT as I had a KD-500 with a Mayware Formula IV years ago. Who did I sell that too? Then there is the KD-650 I bought last year. My brother may end up with that one.

 

[datsunmike]

I bought 2 Kenwood 750s on eBay that were close to my house, and since it was 'p/u only' nobody else bid. I got one for $75 and the other for $115. One came with a Stanton 980ZLS. Great TTs although I do hear some wow and flutter. Nothing I can do makes it skip on my creaky wooden floors.