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best "entry level" audiophile TT?

I'm looking to replace the relatively crappy turntabel I'm using right now. Everyone says Rega (p3 or p2?). I've also been impressed with the Pro-Ject RM-5, Dual CS 455 Gold, and the Music Hall MMF-5 turntables. Any thoughts? any additions to the list? What are key issues / questions to be addressed in finding the best turntable for me?
metalsymph
pauly
1,012 posts
 
+++ The KAB mods take it [SL1200] to the $5K performance level with much less than that.+++

Really? And which $5000 tables my that be? Teres perhaps? Galabier? Avid? Oracle? ClearAudio? Michell?
Sota?

Tell me something psychic, have you ever even heard a $5K table? I have heard a SL1200 and it sound nothing like a $5K table. Doesn't even sound like $500 table.

Regards
Paul
winegasman
100 posts
 
Hey Guys, listening is SUBJECTIVE. How can you claim to know how good or bad a table sounded to someone else? Some like the sound of one table, others don't. Period. No claim of OBJECTIVE superiority can be sustained or substantiated.

Myself, I'm thrilled to death by the sound of my distinctly un-audiophile Yamaha YP-D8 DD table, unmodded, playing my Empire EDR.9 vintage cart. So my $400 rig (including cart) meets MY needs just fine. Will it meet anyone else's -- no way to predict.
metalsymph OP
10 posts
 
thanks for the responses - quite helpful. I guess the price range is sub-1,000. I'm looking for solid quality, good sound - not sheer audio bliss. I, at least as of yet, mainly rely on other sources for music, and only have 40 records. I'm fairly new to audiophilia, and just bought my McIntosh MA6900 integrated, anticables / IC's, and vienna acoustic bach's - so I'm still recovering from the cost of all that while still looking for a TT.
And not to open up a new can of worms, but what /who / how much should I look for in terms of vibration isolation?
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
Tell me something psychic, have you ever even heard a $5K table? I have heard a SL1200 and it sound nothing like a $5K table. Doesn't even sound like $500 table.

No I haven't heard a $5K TT. I was born and raised in a little Caribbean island with only a few general stores and post offices. Not even TVs were sold. Everybody had little AM radios for listening to hurricane weather broadcasts.

Of course, the 1200 does not sound like a $500 table. You must have come from somewhere other than my little island. The 1200's technology to price ratio goes way above its price point. But then again, it's someone like Raoul the Mexican that gives you first world audiophiles a reality check regarding lowly moving magnets giving multi thousand dollar moving coils a run for their money. Money...ahhhh!

JohnnyB, e-mail me & I'll send ya pictures.

With psychic power and primal intensity,
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