Enjoying "Affordable" Equipment


Having never owned a direct drive turntable, curiosity motivated a purchase of a Technics SL-1200GR2. I hooked it up to a stock Denon DL-103. Setup was fun and easy, no protractor required. Easy to understand tonearm height, VTF and anti-skate setup. All metrics were done to spec and VTF was exact without using a digital force gauge except to check my work.

After a brief warm-up the sound opened up and I say without reservation, it's been a while since I've enjoyed listening to vinyl this much. I am playing all my favorites; good recordings of original releases are truly special. More importantly, the price was affordable by today's standards.

The rest of the chain contains a Rhea Eclipse phono preamp, Kell Phantom preamp, Krell EVO 402e with all balanced interconnects and Harbeth 40.2 monitors.

I posted this simply to share an awesome experience provided by our great hobby and hoping to avoid the controversial topics often found on this forum. Thank you!

 

layton64

I am usually all about getting more than my moneys worth in audio equipment.  Sometimes it works, as your Technics TT.  Sometimes it doesn't.  Live and learn.

I too have had a similar experience, I had a very poor kept SP10 Mk II purchased for a very cheap price, which was sent in to a UK individual known for their skill set with such a TT Model.

A Swap was done for the Chassis, which left me with a similar condition Chassis to take away to have improved aesthetically.

I visited a Custom Car Paint Shop not too far from my home and fell for the Coating being applied to Vehicle being worked on.

For the princely sum of £85 I was returned a 'mini me' version of the Vehicles Paint Job which was approx' 12 Coats of Paint inclusive of six coats of Lacquer.

Another very reasonable sum had myself a fully functioning TT with the Technicians bespoke Mod's for this model of TT included.

I have never looked back, I have been so impressed, I invested further to have a Stainless Steel Platter purchased. After prudent purchasing, I am not much over £600 all in, on TT > Exchange Platter > Panzerholz Plinth.

With a Bespoke produced Tonearm added, I am close to £2K.

With the Bespoke Built LOMC Cart' I am not much more than £2.65K.

This set up has been used in other systems and easily bettered TT Fronted Ends costing 10 x more.

In a few cases the end impact on others receiving demo's, has been they sold their TT set ups and produced mimics of my own one. 

One other individual was convinced it was time to part with a Belt Drive TT that they had substantially invested in and search out something that would be a betterment. Experimenting with other Drive Types as part of the newly prompted  journey of creating new experiences to be had.

simao

1,802 posts

 

Glad to hear it as well - although "affordable" seems a stretch considering the rest of your system

My thought exactly.

I am not an English language wiz but if one already owns it, it implies he could afford it? cheeky

If I bought a Gulfstream G550 today just to buy fresh milk from Humboldt county, by definition, it must have been affordable to me.

(my meaningless post for the day)