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Yes, THAT thread again. What turntable to buy?

Hey Kevin, glad you were able to stop by Around Again. What kind of condition did you find the tables to be in? They are usually great with cleanly polished covers, sharp looking styluses and the like.

So the one table I can comment on is the pioneer PL-112D, it was actually my 2nd turntable that I owned a few years ago. Loved it for its looks, it was a decent performer. Medium mass tonearm with the biggest headshell selection (due to the standard bayonet mount headshell). I think the cartridge has a nice warm sound, I have one with a conical aftermarket stylus, I'd bet an elliptical would sound even better. OEM would probably sound fantastic.
I found that the plinth was sensitive to nearby vibrations, so that would be a knock against it. It's a very popular table so it must be easy to find parts if you ever need them.

The CEC I couldnt' find any specs on, but the semi automatic feature is quite nice to have, and I can imagine the specs should be competitive to the pioneer. The platter looks also to be pretty decent in mass, and the CEC looks very much like a Marantz TT-1060, which was most likely made by CEC too. The straight tonearm means it'll be a little harder to find headshell for, with obviously less choices. The tonearm looks to be quite well made, straight was common for that era, so a good match for lightweight cartridges etc.

I'll leave it up to you, I think both options are going to make you happy once everything is working. I'll let another AKer chime in to get a second opinion but so far so good!
 
Thanks for all the continuing advice everyone!

I am not 100% sure about the receiver, but I will check out whether he has a pioneer receiver and maybe spend a bit more to get a good one of those, and just take my time to get the speakers.

I am pretty confident in the Pioneer; love the look, very amazing condition, and they were super friendly and information about all aspects.

Tomorrow I will probably go and purchase the Pioneer, receiver I might get more info and come back. I am confident in step 1 though in that I really liked the pioneer and want to move forward to getting that as my first piece of equipment, and get everything else based off of that one.

Thanks again guys, I'll probably post a pic of it when I get it tomorrow!
 
If you get the Pioneer and then a good pair of speakers you are making sounds. I don't know what the state of FM/AM is in your area, but here in Portland I listen to FM radio about 50% of the time. Budget CD players are easy to find these days. That gives you more choices without even having purchased a turntable. I think choosing a turntable on a budget can be difficult because it takes patience then when the right TT appears it takes quick, decisive action. I use my dad's old Dual TT (a 1249) and I have been using it since he brought it home in 1976. Dual made good solid TT's. Good luck, enjoy the hunt and have fun.
 
I've been running a 112D for 3 years now and it's been a good performer and being fully manual is not bad at all and it will keep you on your toes, you will learn to hear the needle in the run out groove from the other side of the house. One of the easily missed general maintenance items on this table is that the motor will need a few drops of oil, so make sure the people you get it off of (if you buy that one) have done it.
 
I had a PL-115d .... Brought it back from the dead .... It came to me with a motor issue and without headshell, counterweight, dustcover, hinges, etc. Anyway it was one of those feel-good experiences to get a deck back running and it went to someone just starting like you. Under appreciated turntable in my mind.
 
Hey everyone!

I am back with actual results. I ended up being the Pioneer as well as the receiver, which was the HK 3400. Sorry for the confusion.

I paid around $250 in total, and am super excited. I had them set it up in store and try out some music and was sooooo happy with the quality I bought it on the spot. It's now at home and going to be set up tonight to listen to some solid music on my headphones.

Thanks so much for all the help everyone. I feel much more confident in my purchase now, and Around Again had the nicest owners (I am assuming) who helped me out so much and explained all the little bits and pieces of both the receiver and the pioneer. Super friendly, made me really confident in my purchase, and clearly just out to make sure people have a positive first experience with records.

I will be saving up to buy some nice speakers in the future, but for now I am going to enjoy my private headphone sessions. I am so excited to listen to whole albums from start to finish. I struggle so much doing this in the digital era, and I am super pumped to enjoy some of my favorite albums in the sequence intended.

Look forward to updating things with more photos in the future and hopefully more banter!

Thanks again everyone, glad to be here!!
 
Very cool set up. Speaking of cool, you might want to raise the turntable on top of the receiver. If the receiver has vents on top, it will need to breath :) Have fun with your new system.
 
The Pioneer is very nice and an excellent performer. And very respected here on AK. You'll love it. Second the need for the receiver to be ventilated better. P.S. for future forum visitors, the CEC turntables are very good Japanese made turntables of very fine performance and build quality. CEC built quite a few turntable models for many different companies such as Marantz, Sanyo, Fisher, Realistic and many more. Enjoy thy vinyl and thy music!
 
thanks kermit! i just have them stacked for the photo. they will have a more permanent home that is better ventilated dont worry!!
really looking forward to later tonight when i have a chance to set it up and giveit a whirl
 
I'm assumed the turntable is sitting on the receiver just for the picture. I'd recommend not having it on top of the receiver at all.

Now I can't recall if you told us ... what cartridge did it come with? Is the needle new?

edit ps: Congrats!!
 
KevinClaus said:
Hey everyone!

I am back with actual results. I ended up being the Pioneer as well as the receiver, which was the HK 3400. Sorry for the confusion.

I paid around $250 in total, and am super excited. I had them set it up in store and try out some music and was sooooo happy with the quality I bought it on the spot. It's now at home and going to be set up tonight to listen to some solid music on my headphones.

Thanks so much for all the help everyone. I feel much more confident in my purchase now, and Around Again had the nicest owners (I am assuming) who helped me out so much and explained all the little bits and pieces of both the receiver and the pioneer. Super friendly, made me really confident in my purchase, and clearly just out to make sure people have a positive first experience with records.

I will be saving up to buy some nice speakers in the future, but for now I am going to enjoy my private headphone sessions. I am so excited to listen to whole albums from start to finish. I struggle so much doing this in the digital era, and I am super pumped to enjoy some of my favorite albums in the sequence intended.

Look forward to updating things with more photos in the future and hopefully more banter!

Thanks again everyone, glad to be here!!
Click to expand...

Cool! Headphones can be addicting as well. It's a private space. I just bought an amp with headphone jacks for that same reason. Enjoy. I was talking to a good friend of mine that is also a member here and we started talking about gear first, then we started about records, which is where all of our conversations always go and it dawned on us that, yeah, we like good gear, but in the end it's the music that's really important. Enjoy your music and welcome to AK. Lots of nice and helpful people here.
 
Van_Isle said:
I'm assumed the turntable is sitting on the receiver just for the picture. I'd recommend not having it on top of the receiver at all.

Now I can't recall if you told us ... what cartridge did it come with? Is the needle new?

edit ps: Congrats!!
Click to expand...

Hey Van!

It has a Ortofon FF15XEMKII with a new elliptical stylus. The belt is also brand new, and he was super awesome in giving me lots of info on how to maintain everything, to turn the belt if i don't use it for a while just to make sure the same area doesn't become weaker, and tons of other little tips.

What a great experience I've been having, which is the opposite of my first experience. Thanks so much!


131east23 said:
Cool! Headphones can be addicting as well. It's a private space. I just bought an amp with headphone jacks for that same reason. Enjoy. I was talking to a good friend of mine that is also a member here and we started talking about gear first, then we started about records, which is where all of our conversations always go and it dawned on us that, yeah, we like good gear, but in the end it's the music that's really important. Enjoy your music and welcome to AK. Lots of nice and helpful people here.
Click to expand...

I am genuinely looking forward to just yeah, sit down, headphones, and zone out. I want to treat albums (not always) like a movie. An experience where I can sit down for 45 minutes and really feel what the artist wanted to throw out at me. :)
 
Well ... you'll sit for 20 or so minutes and then get up to flip the record!

The Ortofon is a nice cartridge. I've had the same one and currently have a bit higher model, the VMS 20e MKII, sitting in my collection of cartridges.
 
Glad to know it's a solid piece!

If I have more questions, even if its in regards to actual vinyls, do I ask them in the turntable part of the forum or is there somewhere less specific/more specific?

Now that I have my baby, I want to start learning a bit more, finding out how to find some rare LPs that I am interested in, etc.
 
KevinClaus said:
Glad to know it's a solid piece!

If I have more questions, even if its in regards to actual vinyls, do I ask them in the turntable part of the forum or is there somewhere less specific/more specific?

Now that I have my baby, I want to start learning a bit more, finding out how to find some rare LPs that I am interested in, etc.
Click to expand...
The Music Forums, also you can go to the Steve Hoffman forums (http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/) which is great for more technical info about recordings, engineering, and which copies are the best based on dead wax info.
 
Hello Kevinclaus, take a look to Discogs.com to retrieve a lot of informations about all the Lp published in the world and also to buy it. Pioneer PL112D with the same cart was my first turntable when I was fifteen in 1977; it was a wonderful performer, but one day in 1987 stopped spinning, probably for a broken belt, but I was so fool to trade it for a Technics DD 3110 that had never give me the same satisfaction. I changed three cartridges trying to achive the same performance of the Pioneer (Shure M75 ED T2, Goldring 1006 and Grado black) but it was unuseful. Now I am waiting for a Dual 1219 perfectly restored from a friend of mine. Enjoy the PL-112D , in my experience is a keeper (probably better than the Jvc Ql-A51 earlier considered).
 
I've owned may high-end vintage turntable, but 6 mo. ago bought a modern entry-audiophile turntable and I'm lovin' it alot.
I choose the Music Hall mmf2.2 which is a ProJect turntable in disguise. I choose it over the ProJect Carbon mainly because the ProJect tonearm on the Music Hall has VTA to adjust the tonearm height so any cartridge can be used and keep the tonearm parallel to the LP. I upgraded it by rewiring the tonearm with KAB Litz wire with Cardas cartridge clips.
I changed the stock cartridge out for a nice Shure M95ED w/ Jilco stylus and used the VTA adjustment to level the tonearm with this taller cartridge. It has a warm and airy sound which is what I like.
Here is a photo.
opened closer_0842.jpg
 
I was going to suggest going to some hifi stores and mine out some ideas from experienced audio guys. But i had forgotten that many record stores are now selling used TTs.

I will suggest a tt with a detachable headshell. Mounting and inspecting cartridges is much easier and it will enable you to change out your own cartrige when the time comes.

Another advantage will be buying extra headshells so you can have more than one cartridge for different sound or capability OR to mount a cheaper cart when it's party time and you don't want to risk your good one.

Just some food for thought
 
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