What is best turntable for listening to Rock from the sixties like Led Zeppelin?

If you're going to blanket "Rock from the sixties-The sound quality isn't that great," then why even consider a dedicated or particular turntable/cartridge?

Wax/vinyl media then and now is uniquely conceived, produced, and manufactured. I've found that there are more examples of well recorded and manufactured pressings from the fifties and sixties that benefit greatly from contemporary cleaning and playback equipment than not. Even modern dedicated 78 RPM and monaural cartridges can add new dimension to many older recordings.

Consider radio back then which usually managed better sound than one could usually muster at home. High wattage AM still used those slipper felt matted cast plinthed decks with gated speed selector idler drives while the dawn of FM multiplex required much more sophisticated engineered electronics and typically Thorens and eventually pairs of the venerable SP10. Both of which are still in reasonable supply and would be my suggestion for your search and still provide an above average level of performance. 





 

David Lindley is a national treasure and I've seen him live many times…seeing him again in mid April.

m-db: Did someone say all ’60s rock sounds bad on vinyl? I hope not, since some of the stuff I treasure most came from that era-both musically and sonically. I will agree that the Zep stuff isn’t very well recorded, though, much as I loved the early records (and listen to a few tracks on their later ones).
N.B. I guess you could read the OP's thread title and OP that way- I read it differently, not as a blanket indictment. 

I am not a musician or audio expert. I have listened to Zep II on several different decks over the years. First cheap thrift store record players from the 70s, 80s direct drive, then an early project table, then a scout and currently a VPI prime.

I actually enjoyed the music on all these TT. I don’t agree that this record does not have good resolution. I would say everything in general on Zep II has gotten better with the nicer record players. While it’s not some audiophile recording and some of the swirling of guitars sounds contrived in general I don’t think its a bad recording. I personnel would not try to tailor a record player to one genre of music.

Get the best record player, phono state, and cart you can afford and enjoy. I don’t think better resolution, soundstage, image and better dynamics is going to make any 60s- 70s music sound worst. Many people will tell you it can revel flaws in the recording. While I think this is true its more honest and still sounds better to me than having a very thick veil closed in presentation which hides much that is in the grooves. I would say this is a much bigger problem then truly hearing whats on the record. That being said you don’t have to spend a fortune to have fun listening to music I can listen to this era of music on my car radio and enjoy it.

IMO

inna1,906 posts03-24-2016 6:34pmAtma-Sphere is wrong, once again. But if he wants to convince some of us he should try and prove what he says.
Next thing he might say is that amp is an amp, and if it's good it's equally good for everything. Then he will move to speakers. And after that to guitars. Martin guitar would not be best for flamenco or the kind of music that John McLaughlin used to play. John himself said it, I am just repeating it.
There is a lot of art in designing good equipment, not only "stupid" science. But a lot of science too.

I agree with Ralph. Turntable or ANY kind of home audio playback equipment should not depend on style of music. The musical instruments however are different. Martin guitar isn't definitely for heavy metal simply because heavy metal bands don't use acoustic guitars at all. Also you will less-likely see Stradivarius violin used in folk or rock bands either. At the same time there's nothing wrong in playing Bach on Technics SL1200 turntable via some vintage receiver and vintage Advent or Celestion speakers. Any system that can reproduce solo piano played clear is able to play any sophisticated and loud rock or metal.