Spend my $1000 on a turntable
This Rega Planar 3 in red for $750! Then get the Ortofon 2m Blue. There is nothing wrong with them except for literally a scratched box. I bought the same one very recently. Cheers! https://www.musicdirect.com/turntables/Rega-Planar-3-Turntable-Red-No-Cartridge-DAMAGED-BOX |
There is nothing wrong with them except ... .. that they are cheap belt drive turntables and can not compete with decent Direct Drives in terms of speed stability. These Regas looks like a toy and act like a toy, a mediocre turntable for those who's trying to save on everything. These turntables must be avoided like any cheap modern belt drives, especially when brand new SL1200GR is just $1700 (and that plastic Rega toy is $750). As a drive Technics SL1210mkII is superb and the OP already have it, just add new arm with decent cartridge. Technics can be upgraded anytime, the Rega can not be upgraded, it's a junk, sorry. |
My opinion.... I tend to agree with @chakster in that it would seem a good idea to repair the SL1200 (and maybe the phono stage) and mount a good cart. Maybe a Jelco SA-750 of a new Jelco 850 arm could be a significant upgrade, everything else being equal. I also agree with his assessment of (IMO, all) Rega tables, but disagree with chak’s generalization related to belt drive tables. Off-center holes and the process from mastering to final pressing is the cause of pitch instability. Actual speed stability is fine in just about every non-toy modern turntable. (As I have opined in other threads,) What seems more important is drive voltage in AC synchronous motors. Dropping the voltage (such as using a cheap Variostat) significantly reduces any noise making its way down the drive belt(s) from the jerky A/C drive motors. This method just won’t fix the problems with Rega tables, though. Just my opinion. YMMV, YRMV. |
Gents, I’m assuming we are all gents. The table is old, it was a DJ table but it’s in decent shape. The dust cover is trashed, someone tried to take off the DJ’s name with a scotch bright pad. I can polish it off with headlight restore. I have a bad channel, so I did the KAB Cardas tone arm rewire, still a bad channel. The interconnects were replaced a few years ago when I was trying to sort out that bad channel. I need to figure out did I rewire it correctly? Could it be a bad cartridge? Is a pin bad at the end of the tone arm? If anyone has a link to a diagram of the technics wiring at the head shell area and the board is apprecieate it. Our living room is now nice and the GF/Wife feels like its old, the trashes dust cover doesn’t help. I live in Los Angeles so moving this “DJ” table should be ‘easy’. But maybe I look at sorting out the wiring, I need to anyway before selling it as well as the dust cover. I just didn’t want to get a new cart + head shell then sell the whole thing at a near loss. |
Try the cart in a different table. There are a lot of possible irreparable or expensive to repair problems with that table and / or arm. If the table is truly trashed, then maybe a different table is in order as suggested above. My opinions on a "new" table stand on their own +/- merits. You should carefully consider the comments on this tread, listen carefully to tables and arms, and make up your own mind as to what is the best option for you. |
