Lendorien
New Member
Heya all. Joined a while back and done a bunch of lurking. Mighty intimidating seeing the great level of experience around here. Please forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong place.
I've long loved music, but I didn't really get into it until the CD era. I had a record player in the 80's as a kid, but it was a Fisher Price one, and got used to listen to Read Along stories. Haha. I dabbled with Vinyl in the late 90's, but then when my player broke, I got rid of all of my records except for the Steely Dan ones (I seriously wish I still had my Santana albums. Gah.)
Enter now. Over the past few years, I've gotten into vinyl and have slowly grown a small collection of LPs. A lot of thrifting finds that I've done my best to clean with my limited resources. I'm not able to put much money into this hobby, so I'm always on the lookout for deals. All of my stereo equipment have been thrift finds.
I don't have a traditional preamp, only an old receiver from 1997. It's a very very high end one from the time, a Sony DA90ESG (MSPR $1600!! Got complete with remote and manual for $10). It doesn't have a place to plug in a preamp, so for now, I have to use it for that purpose. (I still haven't quite gotten my head around exactly what the benefit of a preamp would be over the amp built into a receiver, but that's likely a result of a lack of interest since I don't have the funds to dump into one at the moment.)
My daily driver has been a serendipitous curbside rescue, a Technics SL-Q6. It's a direct drive unit with the tone arm built into the cover and a p-mount style cartridge. It's in great working order as far as I can tell. I had to replace the rubber mat because the old one was hard as a rock. It also needed a new stylus, but the cartridge (Shure M92E) was fine. It ended up being a huge blessing, because without it, I'd never have gotten into Vinyl. I'm not an audiophile really. I just don't have that good an ear for it. I gather that P-mount players are generally not considered audiophile level equipment.That said, I've been fairly satisfied with it overall
But the Technics does have it's limitations. You have to move the tone arm with buttons while looking through smoked glass to try and see the tracks. It's slow and imprecise, and stopping the unit after playing a track to move the tone arm results in it moving back to the start and then having to move it back to the track you want. Tedious and slow compared to a traditional turntable. I'm also not a huge fan of it's 80's "futuristic" pushbutton visual aesthetic and how it looks with my other equipment.
Onwards to visual appearance, I recently picked up a Panasonic RD-7703 for five bucks at Goodwill. I like its looks with the wood case and Panasonic Badge. It's a nice looking unit. It has the record changer spindle and is in good cosmetic and mechanical shape. It runs smoothly and functions as it should. It's still equipped with the original ceramic cartridge and as a result, sounds AWFUL. It has no bass and a very tinny sound. The Technics sounds infinitely better.
The stylus is one of those 33/78 flip ones. It's probably totally worn out, but I'm not convinced that replacing it would help. I've found a thread or two (http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/panasonic-rd-7703.754985/) about the RD-7703. I gather it's a rebranded BSR, a brand generally not considered to have the greatest turntables. It seems like people have had some success retrofitting them with magnetic cartridges (as it's compatible with a 1/2" mount) and adding a ground loop (I'm ok with a soldering iron, but I'd need some help figuring out how to configure it. My electrical knowledge is limited).
The question I have is whether it would be worth my time to bother attempting to do so, or if I should stick with my SL-Q6 for the time being and ditch the Panasonic? If the end result would be something significantly aurally inferior, then it wouldn't be worth it. I really don't have the experience playing with multiple types and brands of turntables to know what a good decision would be, or even what a super high end turntable would sound like anyway.
And before I get advice to buy something else, remember that I'm a thrifter. Half the fun of this hobby is finding or even making "Treasures." Sadly, finding the high end stuff is pretty hit or miss.
Still, you never know. I did pick up, a brand new, never been opened, still in shrink wrap album - Teaser by Tommy Bolin the other day. What a rush that was to listen to! And what a great album!
So who knows. Maybe I'll find that Technics Sl-1200 sitting on a shelf at Goodwill someday.
Thanks for reading my book, and for the advice! Have mercy on a newbie!
I've long loved music, but I didn't really get into it until the CD era. I had a record player in the 80's as a kid, but it was a Fisher Price one, and got used to listen to Read Along stories. Haha. I dabbled with Vinyl in the late 90's, but then when my player broke, I got rid of all of my records except for the Steely Dan ones (I seriously wish I still had my Santana albums. Gah.)
Enter now. Over the past few years, I've gotten into vinyl and have slowly grown a small collection of LPs. A lot of thrifting finds that I've done my best to clean with my limited resources. I'm not able to put much money into this hobby, so I'm always on the lookout for deals. All of my stereo equipment have been thrift finds.
I don't have a traditional preamp, only an old receiver from 1997. It's a very very high end one from the time, a Sony DA90ESG (MSPR $1600!! Got complete with remote and manual for $10). It doesn't have a place to plug in a preamp, so for now, I have to use it for that purpose. (I still haven't quite gotten my head around exactly what the benefit of a preamp would be over the amp built into a receiver, but that's likely a result of a lack of interest since I don't have the funds to dump into one at the moment.)
My daily driver has been a serendipitous curbside rescue, a Technics SL-Q6. It's a direct drive unit with the tone arm built into the cover and a p-mount style cartridge. It's in great working order as far as I can tell. I had to replace the rubber mat because the old one was hard as a rock. It also needed a new stylus, but the cartridge (Shure M92E) was fine. It ended up being a huge blessing, because without it, I'd never have gotten into Vinyl. I'm not an audiophile really. I just don't have that good an ear for it. I gather that P-mount players are generally not considered audiophile level equipment.That said, I've been fairly satisfied with it overall
But the Technics does have it's limitations. You have to move the tone arm with buttons while looking through smoked glass to try and see the tracks. It's slow and imprecise, and stopping the unit after playing a track to move the tone arm results in it moving back to the start and then having to move it back to the track you want. Tedious and slow compared to a traditional turntable. I'm also not a huge fan of it's 80's "futuristic" pushbutton visual aesthetic and how it looks with my other equipment.
Onwards to visual appearance, I recently picked up a Panasonic RD-7703 for five bucks at Goodwill. I like its looks with the wood case and Panasonic Badge. It's a nice looking unit. It has the record changer spindle and is in good cosmetic and mechanical shape. It runs smoothly and functions as it should. It's still equipped with the original ceramic cartridge and as a result, sounds AWFUL. It has no bass and a very tinny sound. The Technics sounds infinitely better.
The stylus is one of those 33/78 flip ones. It's probably totally worn out, but I'm not convinced that replacing it would help. I've found a thread or two (http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/panasonic-rd-7703.754985/) about the RD-7703. I gather it's a rebranded BSR, a brand generally not considered to have the greatest turntables. It seems like people have had some success retrofitting them with magnetic cartridges (as it's compatible with a 1/2" mount) and adding a ground loop (I'm ok with a soldering iron, but I'd need some help figuring out how to configure it. My electrical knowledge is limited).
The question I have is whether it would be worth my time to bother attempting to do so, or if I should stick with my SL-Q6 for the time being and ditch the Panasonic? If the end result would be something significantly aurally inferior, then it wouldn't be worth it. I really don't have the experience playing with multiple types and brands of turntables to know what a good decision would be, or even what a super high end turntable would sound like anyway.
And before I get advice to buy something else, remember that I'm a thrifter. Half the fun of this hobby is finding or even making "Treasures." Sadly, finding the high end stuff is pretty hit or miss.
Still, you never know. I did pick up, a brand new, never been opened, still in shrink wrap album - Teaser by Tommy Bolin the other day. What a rush that was to listen to! And what a great album!
So who knows. Maybe I'll find that Technics Sl-1200 sitting on a shelf at Goodwill someday.
Thanks for reading my book, and for the advice! Have mercy on a newbie!
