Automatic Turntables


Is there ANY 'table on the market with at least auto Return,.. let alone Fully Auto function which sounds "good"? I don't mean GOOD,.. but????

I was "Fully' part of the "High End" gang; was part owner of a, now defunct, company,. used all of the great stuff in the 80s and 90s. Since then, well, my system 'ain't "bad": Cambridge 550A; unmodified ony DVP-9000es and Monitor Audio RS-6s.

My Current table, purchased here, as a "Refurbished" Thorens 166 mk II, which ( you Know who He is!) and sold to me a with a Garbage cartridge: Autofon "Omega"! ( He kept That fact to himself!)

So, any advice will be greatly appreciated..
operanutlgb2
From the same era, using the same technology, and according to some, designed by the same design team...

The JVC QL-Y series (5/7/55/66/77) - all have the electro mechanical servo damped arm, the later top models have magnetic bearing direct drive motors, and interchangeable arm tubes - so they can be low mass straight arms or mid-mass S-arms depending on the tube fitted.

I would not stress too much about the Ortofon Omega - the cartridge body itself is completely standard OM series, so by replacing the stylus you can upgraded it to an OM20/30/40.

Also the Omega is a surprisingly good cartridge, even if it doesn't get much respect from audiophiles... very much an undervalued cartridge. (it is effectively a rebadged OM5 I believe - and sold for less than the price of an OM5 stylus)

I particularly like the Denon, JVC, and Sony Biotracer electro mechanical arms, as the automatic function is achieved without gears/levers and doodads that can gum up or interfere with playback performance.
Also the servo damping really does work and makes them very very versatile, able to match up with a wide variety of cartridges, that might have resonance problems due to compliance/mass mismatches with a non damped arm.

Very highly recommended tables

Other interesting automatics:
Pioneer PL-L1000/1100, Yamaha PX1/2/3, Revox (this one is sort of automatic/semi-automatic), Mitsubishi LT20/30

The below models have auto lift at end of record and auto shut off. Auto return is NOT necessary as it adds a motor underneath the tonearm, just more things to break and resonate. All have really decent arms.

JVC QL-A7, same as QL-7 but with auto lift & shut off, detachable headshell.

Yamaha YP-D71, JVC coreless motor, detachable headshell.

Kenwood KD-770D, coreless motor, excellent tonearm with detachable headshell with offset angle on straight armwand.

Technics SL-M2, two versions: P-mount or detachable headshell(hard to find).

I also agree with Dlaloum from above.

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I recently obtained a Scott automatic TT on fleabay for really cheap (under $100.00). I got it because I have some Scott tube equipment and I thought it would be nice to round out the collection with another Scott product. I did not expect it to sound good. In fact, I was just going to put it on a shelf. One day I had nothing to do and for fun I put a Grado black cartridge on it and fired it up. I was very suprised by the sound. Very detailed, very clear and very easy to listen to. It compares quite well to my NAD533 which is a Rega P2 clone and sold for amost four times what I paid for the Scott. You may want to look into one.
Check out the 80's versions of the Technics tables. The SL-1300 MK2 was quartz locked speed controlled fully auto version(I have the SL-150 MK2, the fully manual armless version) or the SL-1400 MK2 semi automatic version.

You may be able to find these on EBay at resonable prices. They are pretty good TTs, even by today's standards. Although with any auto/semi-auto version you have to use the Technics arms.