Turntable selection advise

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.

I just read your response about funds. A good friend just bought a Technics SL 1300 in mint condition for $150 on ebay and he is very happy. He added a Denon Dl160 cart and Sumiko headshell (same as what I am using).

FWIW, we both have systems in the $30,000 to $40,000 range are are very happy with the Technics tables.

One huge reason that tables are belt drive (besides the stigma DD tables) is that the cost to gear up to build a quality DD table is very high. Technics spent the money in the 1960's and sells the table for the same price that it has sold for a long time.

Robert,
be sure you check out KABUSA dot com. they offer all kind of real technics TT upgrades. The two I would pop for are the cardas arm re-wire and the dampening trough.

All the best;

John (up in Lake County)