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Enjoying "Affordable" Equipment

Having never owned a direct drive turntable, curiosity motivated a purchase of a Technics SL-1200GR2. I hooked it up to a stock Denon DL-103. Setup was fun and easy, no protractor required. Easy to understand tonearm height, VTF and anti-skate setup. All metrics were done to spec and VTF was exact without using a digital force gauge except to check my work.

After a brief warm-up the sound opened up and I say without reservation, it's been a while since I've enjoyed listening to vinyl this much. I am playing all my favorites; good recordings of original releases are truly special. More importantly, the price was affordable by today's standards.

The rest of the chain contains a Rhea Eclipse phono preamp, Kell Phantom preamp, Krell EVO 402e with all balanced interconnects and Harbeth 40.2 monitors.

I posted this simply to share an awesome experience provided by our great hobby and hoping to avoid the controversial topics often found on this forum. Thank you!

 

layton64
willyht
63 posts
 

Glad to hear it! I had an SL-1210 GR which, frankly, was a great turntable for the money, but I got the upgrade bug anyway and went up to the SL-1200G. Both are great tables. I got the vinyl bug in a big way. When it's right, it's hard to beat the warmth and richness of vinyl. Enjoy.

simao's avatar
simao
1,838 posts
 

Glad to hear it as well - although "affordable" seems a stretch considering the rest of your system. 

noromance's avatar
noromance
9,941 posts
 

Great system which will facilitate upgrading to a 1200G and better cartridge. 

hilde45's avatar
hilde45
5,083 posts
 

Glad to hear of your journey.

Discussions about affordability are heated sometimes because they often trigger people's pride or insecurities about their identity, if that identity is tied to wealth.

It's a shame, because I have been getting to know really experienced audiophiles and journalists of hifi a bit. They all agree with the following statement: "I'd rather have a $2k system in a good room than a $100k system in a bad room."

Since improving room acoustics -- somehow -- is not nearly as pricy as most gear, good sound is much more affordable than many people really know.

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