Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

RGS0008 is the thinner version of the RGS0010A/SFTG172-01.

RGS008 - this is what i have, not impressed by the sound. 
It was creamed by Micro CU-500. 

I've had two days listening to the TT101.  I am beginning to actually believe that it is going to work consistently.  Saturday I listened to it for a few hours with the OEM rubber mat.  Then today all day, I switched to the SAEC SS300 mat.  This combo is a winner.  This turntable is wonderful.  I can only directly compare it to my highly tweaked Lenco, because it is in my basement system feeding the Bev speakers.  I think it has a lower noise floor than the Lenco.  I am using an Acutex LPM320 cartridge, which I am quite used to hearing in the Lenco, but the FR64S tonearm, which I have never heard before. To my ears, the Acutex, which I always liked a lot, sounds even better in the FR64S on the TT101 than it did in the DV505 on the Lenco.  Still using the DV 505 headshell on the FR64S. I expected a problem with mismatch between compliance and effective mass, but that cannot be happening because the low bass detail is superb, not overblown, and my Transmission Line woofers are not "pumping", which they would be wont to do if there were very low frequency resonant peak.  (The TL cabinet affords no dampening of spurious woofer motion.)  This is not just another good turntable. Julie London at 45 rpm is crystal clear and highly musical. LA4 on direct to disc recording just blew me away.  Sarah Vaughn singing a ballad moved me to tears. Here's to JP.

Cheers!

Cheers to you as well, JP.
Just to bump this thread, which to me is more interesting than "what cartridge to use on a Reed 3P?", I will add after another night of listening to a wide variety of LPs, good and mediocre in sonic quality, that this combo of TT101, SS300 mat, FR64S tonearm, and Acutex LPM320 cartridge is THE quietest vinyl set-up I have ever heard.  On better LPs, one could easily convince oneself that one is listening to a CD, except unlike CDs, which have a "noiseless floor" that seems to lie above the musical noise floor, this combo gives you ALL the lowest level musical cues (which CDs mask, usually).  On top of that, you get that fluidity and effortlessness that I now think may be characteristic of coreless motors (and the SP10 Mk3 with Krebs mod).  I am going to try other mats, of course.  For starters, I can borrow the Boston Audio Mat1 from my Lenco, which is sitting next to the TT101.  If I can find a pigskin, I surely will try it.  And I may shell out for the reproduction of the CU-180.

Lewm,


TT101 or SP10MK3 ?  Which is better ?


Good Listening


Peter