For me I was at an age when vinyl was still the rule for best consumer audio playback (early 1980's). I got for my 15th. birthday a nice little component stereo, a JVC RS-11 receiver, JVC LA-11 belt drive turntable and Shure M75 cartridge. The speakers were JVC SK-101, 3 way bass reflex. All very modest stuff but to a 15 year old who was becoming a hifi and music lover it was way cool.
On my meager teenage income I amassed a few new LP's every so often and enjoyed playing them an learning about hifi. When I became 16 and got my car soon after I put a cassette stereo in it and the desire to record my LP's onto cassette became big. I added a Kenwood KX-40 cassette deck to my system an enjoyed making tapes trying different brands of tapes etc.
Over time I swapped for different run of the mill Japan Inc. components, mostly JVC stuff but also Cerwin Vega D-3 speakers and a used Hitachi PS-38 DD turntable(which is still in my dads system today) That PS38 is a pretty good manual direct drive TT with a pretty nice S shape tone arm, no noticeable slop in the bearings and a wood veneer finish which I restored with a multilayer clear coat high gloss finish this past summer. Later I moved onto a linear tracking JVC LA-101 model for something different.
But things changed for me in the summer of 1984. I bought my first CD player a Philips CD-101 top loader. The "Perfect Sound Forever" bit me and like many I was told how great it was because of what I could not hear and I bought into it hook line a sinker. By the winter of 1986 I sold my JVC LA-101 and used money from it to pick up a few CD's. From there for over 16 years it was only CD's and mostly run of the mill Japan inc. CD players.
Just after Christmas 2002 I became curious of vinyl again and found my old LA-11 tt that my sister was given and had boxed for years, she dug it out and gave it back to me. I had about 30 LPs in a box too. The mat had vulcanised and the belt stretched but I was able to get it to play. I put on Alan Parsons Stereotomy and now having a better system with Paradigm speakers and a Denon receiver I noticed something, it sounded pretty good even with an old ill running TT.
I then because reeducating myself on current state of vinyl. I soon bought a Music Hall mmf2.1. IT was a nice new TT and I was pleased by its performance. From there as time has past I then built my first DIY TT with a Rega RB250 arm and only revised it a few times with improvements. Finally I built my first DIY tone arm and it blew me away.
Now that I have made a DIY TT and a DIY tone arm to the best of my abilities and to the limit of expenses I wanted to spend (about $200 over the last 2.5 years not including the original RB250) I have come back to finally just wanting to settle down on what I from reading a lot about lately is seeing as a good turntable. I want to get a turntable that I believe will punch above its weight and will deliver years of solid, reliable performance based on a tried and true past history. This TT is a Technics SL-1200mk2 which will starting with will have a KAB Cardas rewired arm. Later I will, add the fluid damper and maybe the outboard power supply. I have messed around for 2.5 years with DIYing and revising my DIY TT's and now just want to enjoy what I think will be a good to great turntable and enjoy listening to records rather than thinking and rethinking my DIY builds. Don't get me wrong. I am very proud of my DIY TT and will not get rid of it. I will box it up and put it away as a keepsake and a good memory because I built it and also had my father help with building parts of it as a father and son project. But I just need to stop thinking about DIY's and start enjoying the spinning vinyl again. The Technics SL-1200mk2 I will soon get will hopefully get me there.
On my meager teenage income I amassed a few new LP's every so often and enjoyed playing them an learning about hifi. When I became 16 and got my car soon after I put a cassette stereo in it and the desire to record my LP's onto cassette became big. I added a Kenwood KX-40 cassette deck to my system an enjoyed making tapes trying different brands of tapes etc.
Over time I swapped for different run of the mill Japan Inc. components, mostly JVC stuff but also Cerwin Vega D-3 speakers and a used Hitachi PS-38 DD turntable(which is still in my dads system today) That PS38 is a pretty good manual direct drive TT with a pretty nice S shape tone arm, no noticeable slop in the bearings and a wood veneer finish which I restored with a multilayer clear coat high gloss finish this past summer. Later I moved onto a linear tracking JVC LA-101 model for something different.
But things changed for me in the summer of 1984. I bought my first CD player a Philips CD-101 top loader. The "Perfect Sound Forever" bit me and like many I was told how great it was because of what I could not hear and I bought into it hook line a sinker. By the winter of 1986 I sold my JVC LA-101 and used money from it to pick up a few CD's. From there for over 16 years it was only CD's and mostly run of the mill Japan inc. CD players.
Just after Christmas 2002 I became curious of vinyl again and found my old LA-11 tt that my sister was given and had boxed for years, she dug it out and gave it back to me. I had about 30 LPs in a box too. The mat had vulcanised and the belt stretched but I was able to get it to play. I put on Alan Parsons Stereotomy and now having a better system with Paradigm speakers and a Denon receiver I noticed something, it sounded pretty good even with an old ill running TT.
I then because reeducating myself on current state of vinyl. I soon bought a Music Hall mmf2.1. IT was a nice new TT and I was pleased by its performance. From there as time has past I then built my first DIY TT with a Rega RB250 arm and only revised it a few times with improvements. Finally I built my first DIY tone arm and it blew me away.
Now that I have made a DIY TT and a DIY tone arm to the best of my abilities and to the limit of expenses I wanted to spend (about $200 over the last 2.5 years not including the original RB250) I have come back to finally just wanting to settle down on what I from reading a lot about lately is seeing as a good turntable. I want to get a turntable that I believe will punch above its weight and will deliver years of solid, reliable performance based on a tried and true past history. This TT is a Technics SL-1200mk2 which will starting with will have a KAB Cardas rewired arm. Later I will, add the fluid damper and maybe the outboard power supply. I have messed around for 2.5 years with DIYing and revising my DIY TT's and now just want to enjoy what I think will be a good to great turntable and enjoy listening to records rather than thinking and rethinking my DIY builds. Don't get me wrong. I am very proud of my DIY TT and will not get rid of it. I will box it up and put it away as a keepsake and a good memory because I built it and also had my father help with building parts of it as a father and son project. But I just need to stop thinking about DIY's and start enjoying the spinning vinyl again. The Technics SL-1200mk2 I will soon get will hopefully get me there.