1st: JVC LA-11 ( 1981 model) belt drive semi auto. Nice basic Japan Inc. unit for a young teen at the time.
2: Hitachi PS-38 (late 70s' and used) Direct drive full manual. Typical of many Japan Inc. direct drives. Good performance and my dad still has it in his system.
3: JVC LA-1 ( 1984 model) Linear tracking belt drive. Cool unit to play with but only avg. performance with the stock JVC p-mount cartridge. Sold it in Fall '86 to get 100% into 'Perfect Sound Forever' Yeah right! But I was still young and easily impressed back then.
Fast Forward to 2003.
4: Music Hall mmf2.1. Interesting, affordable new table. Good performance reinvigorated by love for vinyl. I had no issues with mine but others had some reported quality control issues with their. I enjoyed mine though.
5: Spring 2005 I built my first DIY table to which I tweaked it into other mods and setups from then. It had a Rega RB250 arm and a Denon DL-110 cart. Parts bin using belt driove setup from an older JVC table. It was a fine project and fun to tweak it . Its sound was good, better than my mmf 2.1 but speed stability was not as good as I liked, cheap Japan Inc. motor and drive. I built my own DIY tone arm Fall of 2007 which came out well and as a nice unipivot. But by Jan 2008 I had reached my end point on my DIY project and soon tired of tweaking it. I gave myself a pat on the back as I did pull it off well enough for a few years but I now wanted to settle in on a new turntable to just enjoy.
6: Feb 2008 KAB USA modded with Cardas rewire Technics SL-1200MKII. This is the table I should have bought back in 2003 but I got all caught up in the belt drive good, direct drive bad CR@POLA. It is by far the best and coolest table I have ever bought. It punches above its weight and will give me years of reliable service. I will soon add the arm damper but I am 100% blown away of how good such a brand new table well under $1000 can sound.
:-)
2: Hitachi PS-38 (late 70s' and used) Direct drive full manual. Typical of many Japan Inc. direct drives. Good performance and my dad still has it in his system.
3: JVC LA-1 ( 1984 model) Linear tracking belt drive. Cool unit to play with but only avg. performance with the stock JVC p-mount cartridge. Sold it in Fall '86 to get 100% into 'Perfect Sound Forever' Yeah right! But I was still young and easily impressed back then.
Fast Forward to 2003.
4: Music Hall mmf2.1. Interesting, affordable new table. Good performance reinvigorated by love for vinyl. I had no issues with mine but others had some reported quality control issues with their. I enjoyed mine though.
5: Spring 2005 I built my first DIY table to which I tweaked it into other mods and setups from then. It had a Rega RB250 arm and a Denon DL-110 cart. Parts bin using belt driove setup from an older JVC table. It was a fine project and fun to tweak it . Its sound was good, better than my mmf 2.1 but speed stability was not as good as I liked, cheap Japan Inc. motor and drive. I built my own DIY tone arm Fall of 2007 which came out well and as a nice unipivot. But by Jan 2008 I had reached my end point on my DIY project and soon tired of tweaking it. I gave myself a pat on the back as I did pull it off well enough for a few years but I now wanted to settle in on a new turntable to just enjoy.
6: Feb 2008 KAB USA modded with Cardas rewire Technics SL-1200MKII. This is the table I should have bought back in 2003 but I got all caught up in the belt drive good, direct drive bad CR@POLA. It is by far the best and coolest table I have ever bought. It punches above its weight and will give me years of reliable service. I will soon add the arm damper but I am 100% blown away of how good such a brand new table well under $1000 can sound.
:-)