Best sounding turntable and cartridge for $1100

To Johnnyb53,   I am sure every point you make is true. However, I am not going to play along with the band.  

Why not the Pioneer PLX 1000? which retails for $679.00.  It looks solid and well made, and got the blessings of that blowhard Herb Reichert who reviews for Stereophile  It is also less expensive than Technics  SL1200 GAE  also reviewed in Stereophile.  Thanks for the comments. SJ 

I have a friend who loves his "U -Turn" although I haven’t heard one myself. They’re inexpensive and they’re made in my current home state of MA (!). If they made them in China they would be free. LOL- That really is funny.
I make it a point never to bring any negativity to these forums, but I have to agree with SJ about Reichert’s reviews. Everything is so hypnotically mesmerizing in a Lava Lamp sort of way. I just have to STOP reading them. Happy New Year!

sunnyjim:

Why not the Pioneer PLX 1000? which retails for $679.00. It looks solid and well made, and got the blessings of that blowhard Herb Reichert who reviews for Stereophile.

That was another option I would consider. Take a $679 PLX-1000, add an Audio Technica AT150Sa for $323.69 plus this economical but very effective cherrywood headshell, plus a good phono preamp (e.g., Schiit Mani for $129) and you should have a bangin’, musically involving system.

I have the AT150Sa mounted to that very cherrywood headshell, and the results are magic. Gone is any bright glare, replaced by a seductive organic presentation. I marvel at the sound and musicality of everything I play through that setup--jazz, pop vocals, large scale orchestral, etc.

BTW, whether you use a pitch control to tune the recording to your instrument is beside the point, which is that THE SL 12X0 SERIES WAS NOT DESIGNED FOR DANCE CLUBS AND SCRATCHERS. It was designed for audiophiles to restore the intended pitch and tempo, and for pitch-matching for musicians.

As an old person, I've always been horrified by "scratchers"…LP Abuse! Tawdry! As a musician I actually get it though, and should get a grip and calm the heck down.

wolf garcia wrote:

As an old person, I've always been horrified by "scratchers"…LP Abuse! Tawdry! As a musician I actually get it though, and should get a grip and calm the heck down.

Your post helped me realize something. It was the DJs and scratchers with their high wear factor that kept the record stampers running from the late '80s to the mid '00s. If they hadn't been so hard on their records, they wouldn't have needed replacements every few weeks or months. If they had gotten 10-20 years wear out of their records like we do, there wouldn't have been enough demand to keep the supply channels busy. 

Once LPs caught on again, there were still mastering labs and stamping machines in place to start meeting demand. As demand increased with the true vinyl renaissance, the suppliers found mothballed stampers and refurbished them. 

So we owe some thanks to DJs, scratchers, and hipster clubbers were so instrumental in keeping vinyl in production.

Ditto for hats. These guys brought back stingy-brim fedoras, usually low cost ones made of cloth or straw. But for me, a 60-something who wears genuine fur-felt fedoras, it means nobody treats me like a weirdo because I wear fedoras.

So that's two things the millenial hipsters made possible for me.