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Help to pick belt driven turntable around $1500

Hello everybody,

I know that there is a similar thread already, but my requirements are different. I am looking for a belt driven turntable.

Right now I own U-Turn Orbit Plus with DL-110 on it. Now I finally decided to do an upgrade (the clicking noises coming from the motor solidified my decision).

Here are are my requirements:
- belt driven
- manual (auto is ok, but I prefer to do things manually)
- swappable cartridge
- unipivot is preferable, but not required
- swappable tonearm (not a hard requirement)
- price around $1500
- no cartridge is OK (I like my DL-110)
- support for MC cartridge
- adjustable VTF, Azimuth and Antiskate (azimuth is not a hard requirement)

So far I am looking at these tables:

Marantz TT-15S1
Mobile Fidelity StudioDeck+
Rega Planar 6
Clear Audio Concept (a bit of a stretch even if I got it with no cartridge)
Schiit Sol (much cheaper than above tables, but quite interesting)

What is your experience with above tables and what would you recommend. Any other tables that you can recommend?

Many Thanks,
Alex
adrobitko
Ag insider logo xs@2x
rauliruegas
13,092 posts
 
Dear @adrobitko : Your requirements are " bizarre " for say the least:

belt drive for 1.5k price ? ? ! !  there is no single BD TT  even at 4K that can outperforms the today Technics  DD:

https://www.technics.com/us/products/premium-class/direct-drive-turntable-system-sl-1500c.html

Tonearm unipivot design ? ? ! !  it's the worst tonearm bearing design to mount any cartridge due to its severe unstability. Unipivot is out of question on analog when you are looking for at least decent quality level performances.


"  azimuth is not a hard requirement . ""

are you kidding me? a joke? because azimuth is a must to have.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.


yeti42's avatar
yeti42
287 posts
 
“Tonearm unipivot design ? ? ! ! it's the worst tonearm bearing design to mount any cartridge due to its severe unstability. Unipivot is out of question on analog when you are looking for at least decent quality level performances.”

Certainly a pain to set up but not as black as you paint them. I get pretty decent results from a Schröder Reference and the Naim Aro wasn’t bad either. Both ride warps without a wobble. I’d take either of those over an SME of any sort but they do need some patience and there’s quite a learning curve. For the budget or even near it, it may be safer to stick with gimballed with the possible exception of a Well Tempered Simplex, a deck that is capable of very fine results when set up right but would probably give Mr Ruegas paroxysms. I’m not sure you can swap out the arm.
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Call UNDERWOOD HI FI asap jump on a TT!!
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