So many great golden era DD tables out there, what do you recommend for $1000?

If you really had "all bases covered" you would not need three turntables.

I currently have 6 turntables (5 in use). I’m clearly off base! Then again, I have 4 complete systems. I rarely use the turntables in two of them, but am glad they are there when I want to listen to them. One I use mainly for play grading my records when I put them on Discogs. I’ve been slowly doing that just so that I have an inventory of them.

The two currently in my main system are both direct drive turntables - a JVC QL-Y66F and a Technics SL1200 MKII. I have the JVC set up with a nice cartridge for my pristine records and the Technics has a Shure V15 Type IV with a JICO SAS stylus for my less than perfect records.

The one in my bedroom is an old Realistic Lab 400 DD table.  It has an auto shutoff feature so I can put on some music and not worry about falling asleep and having the stylus in the runout groove all night.

Having three turntables (or five) is, you know, fun. It's like having three girlfriends ;-) .

I recently picked up a vintage Micro Seiki DD-35 from a local auction. I was very pleased to find that the previous (and original) owner had taken meticulous care of it. It was extremely clean with no scratches on the beautiful rosewood plinth. More importantly, mechanically, it was in perfect working order. The original MA-505 tonearm was in perfect shape and included the original H-303X headshell, mounted with a Micro Acoustic 2002e cartridge with a stylus in excellent condition.
   
After a good bit of cleaning, testing, adjusting and re-adjusting, it was time to hook it up. The sound was absolutely sublime. I ultimately ended up replacing the MA 2002e with the Audio-Technica VM540ML that was mounted on my current turntable. The improvement wasn’t huge, but enough for me to stick with the AT and store away the 2002e for future use.

Bottom line, I think this is one of the best sub $1000 DD turntables you can get, if you can find one. I couldn’t be happier with mine and hope to get many years of use out of it.


https://postimg.cc/XXwqDLWy

https://postimg.cc/fSKwWHW2

Sweet looking tt Catmandude, thank you for sharing.
My Garrard 401 uses a micro seiki ma505ls arm and it is without doubt one very nice arm when in good shape, love the on the fly vta adjustment if it is set up correctly.

Enjoy the table, it certainly looks good and clean.

And of course after you have bought something, a very desirable tt pops up right here, very nice looking vintage TT-81 for a fair price considering it includes a dual tonearm plinth and a nice tone arm imho.

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis9i7be-jvc-victor-tt-81-turntable-motor-cl-p2-base-and-ua-7082-t...