This turntable took Edgar Vichur's amazing, yet practical, design to its zenith. I would say it can stand up to turntables in the five-figure range making it the greatest bargain of all turntables ever produced. If I could have an example of this turntable in this quality I'd take it over much more expensive VPI and Linn examples. Truly a work of engineering art done at a real world bargain price. Why no one has attempted to clone this exact design at a price point still affordable in the current market is a mystery indeed.
I had the same one many years ago, it was a great turntable. Mine had the Rega RB300 arm and I think VMS20E Moving Coil, at the time I compared it the Sondek, Planar 3, Ariston, Logic DM101, I loved the look of the the Logic but they AR was such a competent all rounder and the price was right , the looks amazing, great days.
I just bought one off eBay in exceptional condition for a great price. I have mine paired up with a Nagaoka MP-110 and it sounds so incredible! It replaces my old AR-XA that I bought over 40 years ago. Man, talk about value for your money....buy one if you can.
Usually acoustic Jazz is (or at least was) recorded in a very natural way with little or no eq, compression or other processing, so it gets you close to the experience of listening to a bamd playing live in a club. The same applies to lots of chamber and classical music. With Pop, Rock, Electronica or other heavily processed music styles, you may lack a real life reference on which to judge the sound that is coming out of the system or components you are testing.
It has not been produced for decades, but you can sometimes find one in the used market. I got a very good one without arm a few years ago for about 350 € and i added a Rega RB300 to it, change belt and springs and it has been serving me just fine. It is a excellent record player.
