What Turntable to buy under $600 ?

Turntable.. Schmurntable...

A turntable only needs to do 3 things to be Perfect:

1. Turn at the prescribed speed (e.g. 33rpm) with minimal fluctuation.
2. Impart no vibration/resonance of it's own to the cartridge/arm.
3. Be shielded or designed well enough that the cartridge/armwire is not adversely affected by any magnetic or electrical field from the TT.

That is ALL a turntable can possibly do - PERIOD! There is no Black Magic about spinnin' a freakin' platter at a steady speed. The basic technology to accomplish this was in place somewhere between the invention of the wheel and the early 20th century.

Most of the TT's mentioned here meet those 3 criteria reasonably well.

Everything else being argued about is actually a function of the cartridge, the tonearm, the cartridge/tonearm matching, the quality of the arm wire/output jacks.

So my advice to the original poster, at $600 - buy whichever of these looks the coolest to you (or your wife), won't break the bank, and won't be too much of pain to keep running properly. I've had 15 or 20 of these types of turntables to play with, and I can say without doubt (assuming the quality of TT's already mentioned here) the choice of cartridge is by far the more important factor. And unfortunately that does get into a much more personal, subjective preference.

Pauly,

"Surely you do not think that Garrards are still being sold no?"

http://www.garrard501.com/

I recommend that you not be Mr smarty-pants when you are talking about something with which you have absolutely no personal experience.

I recommend that you not be Mr smarty-pants when you are talking about something with which you have absolutely no personal experience.

The same goes for direct drives--and my experience regarding high end decks, tonearms and cartridges.

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>>the choice of cartridge is by far the more important factor.<<

Nope that's flat out incorrect. A good tonearm with an average cartridge will smoke an average tonearm with a good cartridge. Check it out.

Turntable schmurntable … rubbish

Absolute rubbush. The deck is the most critical part of the front end.

Newton taught us that for every action there is a an equal (in force) but opposite (in direction) reaction. Your needle pressing on the groove makes the groove press back on the needle. The platter construction and the efficiency of the coupling between the LP and platter has a dramatic effect on sound as that influences how the LP presses back on the cart.

Try running with a clamp, anvil and/or periphery ring clamp as apposed to the LP not clamped at all. Huge difference.

A hollow cast iron platter produces a sound very different from one machined from solid aluminum. An acrylic platter sound different from an aluminum or one machined from PVC. These will all sound different from a laminate.

A TT needs to resist airborne vibrations. A wooden box plinth is not to good at that – they pickup these vibrations and transmit them to the platter and tonearm. Best tables have plinths and arm boards made of acoustically dead (i.e. dense) material.

A TT needs to resist vibrations from the object it is placed upon. Put a TT on a resonant table as apposed to an acoustically dead stand and hear the difference. Some will be almost immune while other will have a noticeable degrading of sonics.

Friction of the bearing platter has a huge effect on sound. People don’t pay thousands for air-bearing because they’re 'cool'.

The coupling between plinth and arm board is a factor. The arm board/arm pod should not move in relation to the platter.

I don’t believe I have even scratched the surface. With a crummy deck even the best arm and cart will sound like shyte.