Dearest Friends :-D !
Great to see all of you again!!! I have bought with my own monies and assembled this triumvirate of three affordable turntables which are under consideration of anybody intending to spend about US$250-$300 on a turntable :-)
They are the:
1. AudioTechnica AT-LP120,
2. Pro-Ject Primary,
3. TEAC TN-300.
There is actually a fourth one, the U-Turn Orbit prefitted with a Grado Black cartridge, bought directly online from U-Turn, but is not included in this test because of its inavailability in other countries (and its high cost incurred if one were to ship it in, plus voltage considerations) for most friends living outside of North America.
There is a certain degree (pricepoint) at which products in an industry becomes good, and of sufficient quality to do its job.
Vinyl sounds better than digital, and this is what is enticing many people to look into vinyl playback. I do not want to recommend or buy a system for my friend, and then have him use it and find it sounding worse than digital, worse than his MP3 spotify songs streamed from his handphone. There must be this compelling reason of having analogue sound, of avoiding the pre-ring, ring, post-ring, time smear and phase shift of digital; and that it must sound better than digital.
1. It must sound better than digital (avoiding the ring/smear),
2. It must provide an analogue sound compelling enough by itself by merits that it keeps the new vinyl adopter to continue this hobby. Because vinyl playback can be expensive and troublesome: vinyl records are expensive, vinyl records need to be cleaned, need to be stored properly, they take up space in our rooms, they become heavy, one needs time to take a vinyl out, put it down on the platter, and spin it, and lift off the cartridge at the end of playback... all the "hassle" must not inhibit new vinyl adopters from continuing the hobby. Hence the vinyl analogue sound availed, MUST be compelling enough.
If the promised land of better sound through vinyl analogue is to be availed to him, I will get him either the Rega Planar 1 or Technics SL1200. If finances permit me to do so now, I will save up a bit more and get him either of this later. Cars, ... in the car industry, there are certain cars which are too cheap and poorly made, that it is better that I rather proudly and confidently take the train or bus, than buy that certain cheap car and have myself uncomfortable and coping with quality issues. There is the Tata Nano, in its history, and in its inital stage of creation, to be the cheapest car in the car industry.
But later after it is launched, even the not-so-rich people who can afford it, avoid getting the Nano, they are avoiding it and discovering it is suboptimal in the scope of all things considered. These people appreciate quality, and thus Tato Nano has never been doing well, and now dying off.
There is a price point. I find that, as with the case with vinyl playback, it is about $449 (MSRP in the U.S.) :-). Of course the British have it best as the Planar1 can be bought at GBP249.
At the end of these three turntables' testing and auditions, explorations, and living with them for three months since March 2017, I have no choice but to guide all of you friends who are looking at spending US$300 on a turntable, to look at the versatile, solidly-built, and legendary SL1200Mk3/Mk3D/Mk5 easily available from Japan. Many of my friends all over the world had bought from hifido.co.jp and rakuten. Hifido especially gets my mention because of their excellent service, supreme packaging and timely delivery (which should cost about US$60-80 depending on your locality). A simple step-down transformer to 100V has served me and my friends very well, and all our decks have been giving, day-in day-out, sterling performance (steady speed control of course, courtesy of the advanced and trusty quartz-lock direct drive mechanism) and with more to come always... as brilliant cartridge upgrades shine through along our journey!!!
I do have a Mk5 bought and hand-carried back from hifido in Dec 2015, which you can see on my past video :-D!!!
Any decision to get one, you can email in English language to hifido01@hifido.co.jp , they reply in English and payment is via secure bank credit card page. Other avenues are rakuten.co.jp, and of course from DiskUnion Shibuya branch, if you are there and are ready to get it packed for hand-carry (house the platter separately in a safe and secure box and foam in your checked-in luggage to reduce the weight of the carry-on SL1200 deck, i have done it three times).
Get one good deck, a SL1200Mk3/Mk3D and be done, for many many years ahead: ENJOY brilliant sonics with affordable cartridges like Grado Black, Goldring Elektra, Grado Green, Nagaoka MP-110, and couple them with the Schiit Mani.
And simply enjoy the rest of your great vinyl'ing journey!!!
Best Regards,
~ ian :-D
9 июн 2017
