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Advice for novice needed on turntable

as soon as I could afford better than Audio cassettes I went to digital and never looked back until now. Now I have for the first time in my life, I’ve accidentally acquired a large vinyl collection and I’m seriously considering buying my first turntable purely for nostalgia reasons. I’d like advice on which turn tables to consider that goes beyond the scope of the absolute sound recommended components for one reason. I’m not pursuing ultimate sound quality with this device, I want it to look amazing to entice people to listen to it. I want it to have that visual “wow factor” that some turntables have but I don’t want to spend more than 8k, all in. Any suggestions please.
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Showing 2 responses by chakster

chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
$8k is already a "wow"

Buy new Technics model, the one you like the most, it can be something like $1700 - 4000 and the rest is for a mat, clamp, phono stage and a cartridge. The SL1200GR or higher model SL1200G are both superb Direct Drive, both made in Japan. With the "G" you’re buyin’ killer coreless Direct Drive system and it will serve you for the next 25 years easily without service. It can be the last stop, really.   
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Unfortunately the taste is so different between any of us. Something that is cool for one of us is ugly for another. But when you're buying brand new $4k Technics SL1200G you can be sure about quality and with your budget you can even swap the stock arm for something like '9 inch Reed or others. 

Technics has the most powerful motor in the world, nothing can beat it. 
It's been proved since the '70s. Even the earlier SP-10mkII which you can find under $2k (for a drive only) is superior to almost everything mentioned above.  I have experimented with many tonearms on my ex SP-10mkII ("12 inch Schick, "12 inch Reed, "10.5 inch EPA-100 ... ). So you can buy what you like (arm, plinth). It's great! 


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