realistic lab 400 & 500

[booted]

hello all i found (2) realistic turntables today. (1) realistic lab 400 (2) realistic lab 500. Paid $9.99 each. The 400 had 3 lose screws in the motor mount. And before i tightened up the 3 screws table was wobbly. Now that there tight no more movement. And both turntables work as they should. Not to bad for $9.99 ( plus tax of course) lol. I finally got a good score!!! Pictures attached!

 

[polypetalous]

IMO an AMAZING score!

Love my LAB-500 and sure would love to own a LAB-400 too...
And luckily your LAB-500 came with the proper integrated cartridge/headshell the R9000E-LWS, which has a Shure M95 under the hood.
I HIGHLY recommend an HE stylus for R9000E-LWS, makes a HUGE difference over generic stylus IMO.

And the the big question for any LAB-500 owner... How bad does your platter mat smell?


Ben

 

[booted]

IMO an AMAZING score!

Love my LAB-500 and sure would love to own a LAB-400 too...
And luckily your LAB-500 came with the proper integrated cartridge/headshell the R9000E-LWS, which has a Shure M95 under the hood.
I HIGHLY recommend an HE stylus for R9000E-LWS, makes a HUGE difference over generic stylus IMO.

And the the big question for any LAB-500 owner... How bad does your platter mat smell?
I have not smelt my platter mat!! I did not know this was a thing lol. and they both sound great! Doing some recording today off of the 400. On to r2r. And sounds good to my ears!

 

[EngineerNate]

Awesome score!

 

[polypetalous]

The mats on the 500 are known to "out gas" over time and can sometimes smell pretty bad... mine has mellowed over the years but at one time was pretty bad.
Congrats again on the score...
I am personally a super huge realistic fan, they made some real fine equipment (some not so fine too).

Ben

 

[booted]

I run my tt's through my realistic sta 2080. (2) sets of mach ones. And other realistic speakers also. IMO realistic is * under the radar* gear!

 

[polypetalous]

I run my tt's through my realistic sta 2080. (2) sets of mach ones. And other realistic speakers also. IMO realistic is * under the radar* gear!

Thats awesome.. .I do love the STA-2080, very nice receiver.
I have a pair of Mach Ones too but they need some cabinet repair/refinish, which I probably will never get to. But, the Mach Ones would be WAYYYY overkill for my very small listening area I currently use.
But its cool, cause I basically have the Realistic "Dream System" of 1978/1979 like I used to drool over in the catalogs when younger.

Much nicer than the Realistic Clarinette system I had as my first "stereo."

Too fun!
Ben

 

[alteclipsch]

I'm a proud owner of a Lab 400, and while it was free, your deal is amazing. Wonderful tables.

 

[63pontiacgp]

Always have liked the 400's. I remember drooling over one in the Radio Shack catalog when I was a teen in the late 70's.

Mike

 

[Montycat]

How bad does your platter mat smell?

Best question of the day.

 

[booted123]

Lab 500 plus 2100= great audio.

 

[charles 1973]

My first real turntable was the Realistic LAB 300. Loved that table. If I had kept it and the 50 - 60 LP's I had collected I wouldn't have needed to buy a new turntable earlier this year and all new records. One of the first albums I played on the LAB 300 was Aerosmith's "Get your Wings". It was $42 CDN yesterday at the record store. It sounded great back then with the Shure M95ed cartridge which tracked like a champ. It came with a similar Realistic branded Shure cartridge.

It was part of a package I put together consisting of the matching Realistic STA90 receiver and Mach One speakers. Loved the receiver too. While the Mach Ones sounded great cranked with rock music, I listened to a lot of pop and light rock too at moderate SPL's and found the Mach Ones missing something at lower volume. I would have liked to hear their larger Nova series speakers or the T-200 towers with the STA 90 receiver and LAB 300.