Turntable help for a Newbie

Terry,

No trouble at all. The tales you remember are from the original D-I-Y days, when men were men and Teres TT's were being designed and built virtually from scratch. Joe is capable of doing that. I'm not.

Like any model 2xx or 3xx Teres, my 265 arrived ready-to-assemble. Any concientious twelve year old could do it, honestly. The only tools I had to provide:
- adjustable wrench
- bubble level
- pencil
- 1" of scotch tape
- syringe (optional)
- patience

The syringe is for filling the bearing with oil (provided) without smearing any on the sides of the shaft (important). The patience is to wait 4-8 hours for the bearing to settle. Spinning the platter before that could score the bearing surfaces. Except for this waiting period, the entire assembly takes maybe 20-30 minutes. Aligning a cartridge is more difficult. The complete instructions are on the website if you want to review them.

Obviously if you chose one of the unfinished 1xx models there would be some light sanding, finishing or painting. But that's strictly at your option.

Doug

Mang53,
I was in the same position as you and finally went for a Scheu/Eurolab Premier MkII with the new Tacco-tonearm, which is supposed to be as good as a Schroeder-arm. Price for this combo is about $3500. Scheu offers excellent Benz-cartridges, too.
Take a look at http://www.soundscapehifi.com/eurolab.htm and
http://www.scheu-analog.de/
Eurolab-tables are widely discussed over on the Vinyl Asylum, too.

Thanks, to all who have taken the time to help out. It looks as though the "Teres" is in fact the front runner thus far...film at eleven, I'll keep you posted. Craig