Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

duke86fan said:
wait wha... i thought it was custom tuned to my specific cartridge so the counter weight was weight to the exact 5.5 weight of my grado black, and thus adjusting the tracking force on a higher gram will be more difficult and have the wrong antiskate (trying to skate for a tracking force much higher or lower than the one previously on it) on it
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You just loosen the screw on top of the counterweight. Then the counterweight will slide back and forth allowing you to change the tracking force for a wide range of cartridges.
new_counterweight.png


I strongly considered the Debut Carbon, and I have zero regrets about going with UTurn. I still have mine because I can't bring myself to sell it. My fiance has been using hers for probably close to 3 years now with zero issues. Once we merge households we'll listen to both UTurns (different carts) and sell one... maybe. Maybe we'll just have 3 rooms with turntables, lol.
 
So speaking of Uturn. I’m thinking of upgrading either it to a Technics or my Vincent pre to something else. What give me the most return for my money? Either way, both will be upgraded over the next 2 tax returns so will need room for growth. And is 1K enough or should I up my budget to $1500?
 
Englishbob said:
So speaking of Uturn. I’m thinking of upgrading either it to a Technics or my Vincent pre to something else. What give me the most return for my money? Either way, both will be upgraded over the next 2 tax returns so will need room for growth. And is 1K enough or should I up my budget to $1500?
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If you are looking at Technics, the SL-1200GR is $1699 but can be had for less than $1400 with coupons from Guitar Center or Musician’s Friend. I’d want a GR over any of their lower models. Possibly a last table.

Another good move would be a Pioneer PLX-1000. $699 but again with coupons can be had under $600. At that price, I doubt there’s anything better out there. I had one and the one thing I hated was that the dust cover wasn’t hinged.

Both the Technics and Pioneer can be upgraded with better headshells as well as the KAB TD-1000 arm damper.

I’d upgrade your turntable before upgrading your phono stage.
 
I recently upgraded my orbit w/grado black and the pho8, to a pioneer plx 1000 and then an AT VM95Ml cart. I upgraded the table expecting little to no difference in subjective sound difference but an overall more enjoyable user experience, I very much disliked the belt moving of the orbit to change speed as well as how seemingly little the tone arm weighed. The Pioneer solved all these issues the only thing that I dislike is it’s lack of auto lift but obviously this is simply something it doesn’t offer and I knew that going in. I found no notice of difference in audible playback until I changed carts, switching tables did cause me to Install a cartridge which I had never done up until that point and gave me the confidence to upgrade it shortly there after. The adjustable feet and overall weight and footprint of the Pioneer makes it way more stable in a general sense you aren’t going to knock it around under normal circumstances like the orbit seemed to for me. I could see myself using this table until it no longer works and is not cost effective to repair.
 
HiFi Guy said:
If you are looking at Technics, the SL-1200GR is $1699 but can be had for less than $1400 with coupons from Guitar Center or Musician’s Friend. I’d want a GR over any of their lower models. Possibly a last table.

Another good move would be a Pioneer PLX-1000. $699 but again with coupons can be had under $600. At that price, I doubt there’s anything better out there. I had one and the one thing I hated was that the dust cover wasn’t hinged.

Both the Technics and Pioneer can be upgraded with better headshells as well as the KAB TD-1000 arm damper.

I’d upgrade your turntable before upgrading your phono stage.
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I'll give a vote to the PLX, constantly impressed with it. Yes, the no hinge top is a bit of a pain.............IF you don't usually just take the top off as I normally do, lol. Not a big enough issue to sway anything away from the deck ;)
 
I looked at the PLX and am just concerned that if I bought it I would constantly wonder 'what if' in regards to the Technic. The Technics would most likely be end game for me. Plus I had one many moons ago and adored it.
Would the Grado Gold work on it so I could save some money as it doesn't come with a cartridge?
 
Englishbob said:
I looked at the PLX and am just concerned that if I bought it I would constantly wonder 'what if' in regards to the Technic. The Technics would most likely be end game for me. Plus I had one many moons ago and adored it.
Would the Grado Gold work on it so I could save some money as it doesn't come with a cartridge?
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Todd the Vinyl Junkie has a Technics SL1210GR (black version) DEMO in excellent condition on sale for only $1300.
www.ttvjaudio.com

Technics SL1210GR Turntable DEMO

www.ttvjaudio.com
 
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Re. Technics, I recently got a SL-1500C and am very happy with it so far.

Solid build, swappable interconnects and completely agnostic to virbations (my Concept with its magnetic arm skipped when I walked closely to the deck, while I can now jump and let the kids go into furious moshpit in the living room w/o noticing anything on the turntable). The ability to swap cartridges is the big plus for me (purchased a mono cart around the same time), and the auto-lift too, as I quite often play records when I'm about to take a nap.

Phono stage is very basic though (I might not have noticed this if I hadn't a MoFi phono stage to compare and just my amp phono input), and it obviously doesn't look as pure and minimalist as a Rega or project. But the silver version is still very neat.

Purchased for a bit less than 800€ brand new during new year sales, looks like you can still get open box versions around that price (and I suppose, in the US too).
 
i only get tempted by ortofon because of sites like analogue planet putting the red as their groovie for best cheap cartridge and RED saying that for ripping vinyl records (even though i wont do it) would do a uturn with a 2M blue and acrylic platter
 
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