What is the best all around Vintage Turntable?

[Hitachiht550]

For me....and I admit I may be a little biased..Hitachi HT-860. Fully automatic turntable that will do everything for you or it will let you choose the speed and size or where to start. It will also let you turn off the auto return. It has VTA adjustment that I find easier than a Yamaha YP-D10. I really love this turntable. My wife does too.. she has claimed it for the main floor system along with my Grace F9. Here is a pic just after bringing it back from the dead with a just unsealed copy of Amorica.

 

[pdm4606]

What about DIY setups???
I have rebuilt several misc. TT's with mixed results. My most best is my now running ROK N33-H.
The arm is home made. The platten is home made. And all the circuitry is DIY.
To me it sounds great. Best I ever heard.
The pivot to stylus is a shade over 18". This puts the distortion factor at around -.2%. The pivot is a fish line with a delrin spindle loose in the bottom to guide.
Tracking is easily 1 to 2 grams. All vital adjustment are available. Some can be done on the fly.
The most important issue of snap, crackle and pops are very low. The setup lets the music come through and puts the pops way back.
Most of my LP's are GW or Savers which made me concentrate on quietness as major factor. Others are from the 50's I bought new when I was a kid and still sound good.
I use either a Pick XV15 1200e or a Stanton 681EEE. I have many other carts. but these sound the best with the Stanton actual best.

 

[MannyE]

Well, if I was going to pick the best vintage turntable, I would have to pick the Nakamichi TX-1000 Self-Centering Turntable. It's an engineering masterpiece, the look, while subjective, is one I love...the Darth Vader of turntables one could say, it's rare, so it has a coolness factor of being the only one on your block (or probably in your state) to have one..... it's in my opinion, the best all around vintage turntable. I wish I owned one!

 

[BrocLuno]

I've been thinking about this since my earlier posts ... I don't take back any of that. But, I have to say there are some criteria missing here ...

So much of this is dependent on the tone arm. And that may be dependent on the type of cartridge preferred ... And, on top of that, what's the utility criteria?

I spin mostly LP's, but I have a pile of 78's too. So the table needs to spin 33 and 78. That sets quite a few aside - good as they are.

And having two pretty different formats means I have to be able to swap headshells and cartridges, or have two tone arms. And you'all know I'm a swapper, so that means an S or J arm that takes headshells. So that cuts out about 50% of the tables mentioned in the top ranks.

Tone arm mass is important too. I need enough that I can get a 78 cartridge/stylus in a mid-weight shell to "dig in" on the 78's; but not so heavy that if I build a really light headshell, I won't have the benefits with a very light tracking stylus ...

So, in my mind, utility drives the perception of "Best" ...

Now, if the question is best for just LP play post 1960 say, then the equation changes. Then I might move in the direction of an Oracle or something ...

But as long as I have the collection of records I do, it has to be more versatile than pure techo wizardry. I just can't live with say a carbon fiber fixed mount arm. Won't work. But they surely are good - maybe the best in their limited way ...

So specialization comes into this. Need and flexibility also.

I think we should break this thing down into best drive, best arm, and best circuitry ...

Then we'd have more to dissect

 

[MannyE]

I've been thinking about this since my earlier posts ... I don't take back any of that. But, I have to say there are some criteria missing here ...

So much of this is dependent on the tone arm. And that may be dependent on the type of cartridge preferred ... And, on top of that, what's the utility criteria?

I spin mostly LP's, but I have a pile of 78's too. So the table needs to spin 33 and 78. That sets quite a few aside - good as they are.

And having two pretty different formats means I have to be able to swap headshells and cartridges, or have two tone arms. And you'all know I'm a swapper, so that means an S or J arm that takes headshells. So that cuts out about 50% of the tables mentioned in the top ranks.

Tone arm mass is important too. I need enough that I can get a 78 cartridge/stylus in a mid-weight shell to "dig in" on the 78's; but not so heavy that if I build a really light headshell, I won't have the benefits with a very light tracking stylus ...

So, in my mind, utility drives the perception of "Best" ...

Now, if the question is best for just LP play post 1960 say, then the equation changes. Then I might move in the direction of an Oracle or something ...

But as long as I have the collection of records I do, it has to be more versatile than pure techo wizardry. I just can't live with say a carbon fiber fixed mount arm. Won't work. But they surely are good - maybe the best in their limited way ...

So specialization comes into this. Need and flexibility also.

I think we should break this thing down into best drive, best arm, and best circuitry ...

Then we'd have more to dissect

My thinking on that is that we need to ask another question... what's the best software? It seems like an easy question, because the 33.3 or 45 rpm 12 inch disc seems obvious. But there are other factors... many 78 rpm discs have a "live" unedited and un-mixed quality that's very hard to reproduce. On early recordings on 78s you can sometimes hear the artist struggling to finish the recording in the allotted time because they cut live straight to the master. That quality isn't there on slick, modern 33 rpm records. Cylinders, same thing.

So maybe it needs to be broken down... what's the best vintage LP turntable and what's the best vintage 78 turntable. Maybe the best vintage turntable is one that plays 33, 45 and 78!

 

[BrocLuno]

Yeah, you certainly look at it that way

 

[Hobie1dog]

.

So maybe it needs to be broken down... what's the best vintage LP turntable and what's the best vintage 78 turntable. Maybe the best vintage turntable is one that plays 33, 45 and 78!

exactly

 

[Codesix]

My Marantz 6300 DD has been a reliable TT for many years. With Cartrige updates it has performed trouble free and has that vintage look. Certainly not the best, but well respected performance.

 

[2channel*]

"And having two pretty different formats means I have to be able to swap headshells and cartridges, or have two tone arms. And you'all know I'm a swapper, so that means an S or J arm that takes headshells. So that cuts out about 50% of the tables mentioned in the top ranks."

Not entirely true. You could have a cartridge that has interchangeable styli. I do. BTW I vote for the Oracle Alexandria with a Jelco SA250-st or a Sumiko Premier MMT as the best table I've heard yet. I just play 78s on a Thorens.

 

[rockfan52]

I've always been fascinated by the Nakamichi TX-1000.......I never owned one but I saw two of these back in the 1980s.

 

[2channel*]

I notice that other than the Nakamichi (that is sooo cool! Is that the one that corrects for off-center holes? I'd love something does that at a reasonable cost.) and the Goldmund there are no real exotics and uber-expensive tables getting a lot of love. Quite a contrast to today's marketing that would make us believe that any tonearm costing less than $2,000 is rubbish. The first golden age of vinyl was for everyman. The current one, not so much.

 

[2channel*]

I can go along with the


In the early days of Hi-fi ....much of the equipment was DIY...many of the engineers didn't have great access to more than a drawing board and maybe a lathe .Some of the great early designs were simple and very effective and their cost was not always great.....now-a-days there is a school of thought that " it must be good because it cost so much"......experience has shown that often this is not the case and the road is littered with many expensive pieces of equipment that sounded poor.

I'm flattered that you think I must be too young to have been there. Thank you for making my day, Gryph!

 

[Pablo Alto]

I'm completely enamored by my Technics SL-1700. The independent platter suspension, the sheer solidness of it... I'm done with full automatic TTs, but love the auto-return & off feature.

 

[Mgino757]

I love my Technics SL-1800 mk1. Even though it is missing it's feet, which seem to be impossible to find, it still sounds amazing. I just walk lightly by it if I have to. lol It holds speed like something crazy. It's simple, being all manual, less stuff to break down. I don't own any 78's, so not being able to play them doesn't bother me much. I have mostly 33's and a handful of 45's from my dad. I mostly listen to Rock from the late 60's to mid 90's. I have an Audio Technica AT95E cart on it right now, but I'm curious how much better an AT440MLA would sound.

 

[TomReceiver]

I still like the vintage Dual tt w/ the United Audio beveled plinths. Mine was a 1225 but I really wanted a 1229 w/ the strobe. Now i own just because it was cheap and the cart is a Grado Black is the JVC-QL-A200. Works fine for a semi auto unit.

 

[2channel*]

For automatic belt drives, the Fons CQ30.

 

[BSpaaudio]

Dual 1219 or a Thorens TD 160

 

[wildsearch]

Dual 1229 Excellent in my world.

 

[2channel*]

Linn Basik is great for a no fuss, easily maintained, sweet sounding table.
The Oracle Alexandria is a bit more complex to set up, but very well worth the effort with the simpler Oracle/AudioQuest tonearm or any Jelco.

 

[radine]

5 years and 19 pages yet nobody has mentioned the Sony TTS-8000. Definitely a contender in the DD category.