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Who here owns their ultimate/dream/"grail" turntable and what is it?

T68 said:
After two years of planning, learning CAD, 3D-printing,CNC and laser-cutting. Countless hours of constructing. Making mumerous learning mistakes, frustrations, victories and then more mistakes.
But then finally being able to drop the needle and it sounds fantastic!!! Hard to beat that feeling.
... don't know if it's my holy grail TT, but it is very special to me.
My first homemade turntable (Lenco L75 based) with a diy:ed sideways unipivot acrylic truss tonearm.

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If nothing else, it sure is visually interesting!
 
T68 said:
After two years of planning, learning CAD, 3D-printing,CNC and laser-cutting. Countless hours of constructing. Making numerous learning mistakes, frustrations, victories and then more mistakes.
But then finally being able to drop the needle and it sounds fantastic!!! Hard to beat that feeling.
... don't know if it's my holy grail TT, but it is very special to me.
My first homemade turntable (Lenco L75 based) with a diy:ed sideways unipivot acrylic truss tonearm.

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View attachment 3121381
Click to expand...
To quote Sam Phillips: 'Well hell, that's different!'

Very nice.

I also have a Lenco:

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A couple of years ago a guy I know gave me a very sad looking Thorens TD124 that needed, well, everything.
After some months of work, I now have this:
1708199020908.jpeg

I haven't directly compared the two as it's a real PIA swapping out 45 pound turntables. They both have Rega arms.
I don't know that either of them are my holy grail TT but they are certainly very good.

If I won the lottery I would probably just buy some fancy tonearms and expensive cartridges.
 
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I was amazed at how much bigger this turntable is compared to my others. The Hitachi TU-1000. Lucky enough to have purchased it last year. It has been restored mechanically and electrically. Mine has a couple of cosmetic flaws but I am totally happy with it. Currently mine has an AT-1100 tonearm running a bunch of high-compliance carts.
You won’t see these too often either.


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The Technics SL-1200MK2 was my (modest) holy grail, thanks to working with all kinds of Technics DD turntables in broadcasting and production. I snagged one on sale in the late 1990s and never really looked back. Newer generations have subtle improvements, but I've been happy I jumped on the one I have.
 
I've had so many turntables. I have four right now. In the end, I keep returning to my Pioneer PL-560. I like everything about it. I have a Dual, a Thorens, and a Technics.

I've also tried a lot of speakers. Fortunately, I have let many of them go. Got to make some decisions about turntables I don't like for a variety of reasons.

FWIW, the Pioneer has been my cheapest turntable purchase, at $15.95 from Salvation Army.

Two homes, 2,000 miles apart. I need to group all of my favorite stuff in one place....

My more recognizable "grail" hifi stuff are the McIntosh amp/tuner combo and JBL C50 speakers. They came with the Thorens, which I do not like, and a broken reel to reel.

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Well, my holy grail would be this, unquestionably:

EMT 927st

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Now, i don't own that one, but i own a double-platter Lenco L75 on heavy plinth with SME tonearm mount. Not the same, but same concept.

Besides that one, being a Sony fanboy, my holy grail would also be this one:

Sony PS-X9

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Meanwhile I satisfly myself with two Sony professional DDs, the PS-2500 and the PS-2251, the former with a Rega RB303 and the latter with a SME 3009/III.
 
The Well Tempered Lab Turntable became my bucket list deck when first reading about it in Stereophile Magazine back in 1985. It's debut price of $3495 meant it was going to stay in that bucket.

Little did I know that it's out of the box design thinking would lead it to obscurity and within my working man's wallet about 3yrs ago. Not only does it live up to all of my expectations but far exceeds them, my endgame table.

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This is my Pioneer PL-50. I love it and had always wanted one and have had this for 10 years. I will admit if some other high end TT showed up for $100 I would buy it but I would keep this one.

PS I have a few other TT's now including a different Pioneer and a few Technics
 
parman said:
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This is my Pioneer PL-50. I love it and had always wanted one and have had this for 10 years. I will admit if some other high end TT showed up for $100 I would buy it but I would keep this one.

PS I have a few other TT's now including a different Pioneer and a few Technics
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I got the PL-41 as well and it's my daily user turntable, which means I like how it sounds.
It currently has a SME 3009/II tonearm with the Shure SC35C cartridge, made-in-usa version.

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Beobloke said:
Nice!

I've just taken the plunge on a second one. The first i bought knowing it didn't work but it turned out to be due to part of the mechanism that had broken and sheared off. I searched for a replacement part for 8 years before giving up and selling it for spares.

This one hasn't been used for a few years but was allegedly fully working when put into storage. Wish me luck....

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Was the big main gear broken off the shaft it’s attached too?. One of my 224s.came that way. I removed the shaft and took it to a local machine shop. They drilled out the broken part of the shaft pressed in a new piece, drilled and threaded it for the screw to hold the gear. The machinest did an excellent job and it’s been trouble free ever sense
The work cost me $30 and that was a bargain
 
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I'm nothing if not a minamalist, so my AR 77XB is quite close. But, I saw an AR ES-1 somewhere.. a prototype in Rosewood. I suppose that would be it.

Suffice to say, I'm quite happy with AR.
 
My T224s operation is fairly stable but not perfect. It sometimes has problems picking up 180 - 200 gram LPs. Not always but sometimes. It’s not an adjustment issue. The pickup teeth just weren’t engineered for LPs that thick.. The worst case and this has happened only once so far. A 200 gram Jerry Rafferty LP just purchased was picked up by the pickup arm from the platter and thrown on the floor. Didn’t hurt the lp but from now on I’ll be playing that record in manual mode.

I was in another room when it happened and I heard it hit the floor!
 
audiocrzy said:
Was the big main gear broken off the shaft it’s attached too?. One of my 224s.came that way. I removed the shaft and took it to a local machine shop. They drilled out the broken part of the shaft pressed in a new piece, drilled and threaded it for the screw to hold the gear. The machinest did an excellent job and it’s been trouble free ever sense
The work cost me $30 and that was a bargain
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No, it was actually the outer part of the gear that had sheared off - I've no idea how! The centre part of the cog was fine but it was the undulating edge that moved the levers that was gone.

As an aside, I'm ashamed to admit that my latest TD-224 is STILL on the 'to-do' pile! :(
 
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