Can someone please explain the appeal of these new bare bones overprices turntables? I’ve owned 2 to flip and I don’t get it. They are very cheaply made in China and very fragile. I bought a pro-ject debut carbon with the carbon fiber tone arm and $200 rca cables that everyone seems to need to buy for them. It sounded good but I don’t know about $700 good.
To understand the appeal of new, bare-bones turntables, and to know whether they sound good for the money, I think a person needs to audition them in a hi-fi shop against other options near their price points. If a person is interested in buying one, it's good to borrow a floor sample overnight so you can hear it in your own system and setting before making a final decision. It was that process that led to my buying a Rega RP3.
My latest is a pro-ject essential that was broken in shipping and is being sold for parts. The platter is made of laminated particle board. Yea I said laminated particle board.
Well, your latest is a long-discontinued version of a product line that seems to no longer exist; in any event, I can no longer find Essential models at Pro-Ject's web site. The latest might have been 2017's Essential III, which used upgraded materials for platter and plinth, better isolation feet, different tonearm design, and upgraded cartridge. I also don't find the Debut Carbon Esprit on Pro-Ject's website, or the newer Debut Carbon Esprit SB (DC). If you want to understand the appeal of new, bare-bones turntables, it would probably be best to at least audition a new one, not a used one that has been rewired.
Am I missing something or is this just the latest fad to separate fools and their money?
If by "this" you mean buying a new, bare-bones turntable, there's nothing inherently foolish about it. Of course, not every decision in life proves to have been the best one, but that doesn't mean the decision was made foolishly--it could well have been arrived at after much research, seeking out experienced opinions, and making the best choice we could with the available information. A person might love the sound and buy a bare-bones turntable, but find after some time that the manual operation, which he had thought would be no big deal, irritates him, so he ends up replacing the bare-bones model with an automatic. Neither purchase was made foolishly, but the second had the benefit of actual long-term experience living with a manual turntable. On the other hand, a friend of mine has had an original Rega P1 for about 17 absolutely trouble-free years, still loves it, still recommends it as "all the turntable anyone really needs."
There is new turntable for about $1000 what works as it should, better than those boutique crap (and with KAB fluid damper it is excellent table):
