Turntable selection advise

Doubtful you'll find a better table for the money, than a Technics 1210 MkII, or Mk5. They're loaded with good, usable features, and will surprise you, that they are a good sounding table.

One of the reasons Belt Drive became more popular, was because of its cost, being much less expensive to implement an AC Syncho Motor, rather than a sophisticated DC Servo Direct Drive Motor.

Implementation is the key, and the quality of the sum of parts. Remember, Technics use Direct Drive Motors on thier Record Cutting Lathes. Yes, it's an age old battle, but this doesn't mean one of these Technics Tables, with a very good Cartridge, and Phono Stage cannot produce very good sound.

Not sure how important this is to you, but I believe there is a 78rpm mod-kit from KAB for the Technics, as well as a large slew of other worthy upgrades from them, which will greatly improve the performance of these bulletproof Turntables. Most of the mods can be installed by an adept end user. Things like a Cardas Tonearm rewire might be best left to Kevin at KAB.

You can modify-upgrade the Technics as funds allow.

About a phono stage, I again gather you have none in your current component arsenal, and if you wish to stay with a Moving Magnet Cartridge, these don't necessarily have to be prohibitly expensive to acquire a great sounding Stage.

I think a nicely set up Technics, with a good MM Cartridge, something like the AT-150MLX, and a good Phono Section will give many years of great enjoyment. The entire package (Table-Cartridge-Stage) should be able to be purchased new, for around $1K.
Mark

Stanwal, thanks for the advise but let me explain myself. As you may know our current market is down, economy wise, gas is up, salaries are down etc. You know the endless stories out there, anyway, I got hurt at my job. Got struck by an SUV on a fire truck. I'm a Firefighter here in the City of Chicago. I don't make the best salary but I do make a decent amount for my standard of living. I also work 2 jobs, but for the past 3 months I haven't been able to work due to surgeries, physical therapy etc. So my money is very, very tight and I wont be able to go to work for another 3 or more months, sad because I need to work, make overtime and work my part time job and as well the Army Reserves.

I would LOVE to have the money to spend on better cables, interconnects power cords, better turn tables, cartridges etc but to be completely honest I just don't have the funds for at least now until things get better and I get more healthier. God willing of course. I have other reasons as well but I won't post them here on a public site.

Thanks for the advise, Robert

If you match the tone arm (stock technics is fine) with a good cartridge and decent phono pre the technics will give you excellent performance. I have my 1700 mk 2 set up properly and it can give my Sota nova a run for its money as a matter of fact many times I prefer the technics as it lifts the arm after play.

I use to sell Technics , so am not prejudiced against them. As to the belt drive being cheaper, if you look at top end turntables available today, they are belt drive. The governing factor is the isolation of the platter from the motor. What the cutting lathe uses has no bearing on playback. You build a road with a bulldozer but it's not the best vehicle to navigate one already built. So much for theory. If I wanted the best performance at the lowest cost I would look on ebay at the Technics SL-10 or SL-15 [not the 25]. They were some of the neatest tables ever built, linear tracking, automatic, and they sounded better than many of Technics pro tables. Cost will be under $200, probably under $100.

I had a VPI Scout with a Dynavector 20x and VPI 16.5 cleaning machine. I never used it because teh machine did nto clean the records well (I even bought the magic record research liquid) and the VPI was just a pain to use.

I replaced it with a Technics SL1200, Denon DL160 cart and Walgreens perfection steamer. Easy to use and happy as can be. I now almost always listen to records.