Hey poke -- I had a Rek O Kut, too. Or at least my dad did. I'd put on Rubber Soul or some such. Make out with my girlfriend.
How many turntables have you owned?
My analog journey started in the 70's- I'm on my 6th turntable, which I have owned since 1998. I think it's my final turntable!
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Five; the life of a casual 78 collector-turned semi-professional transfer engineer in about eight years:
1) Audio Technica LP-120. Removed the built-in preamp to improve the signal chain. Used for a few years as a starter table 2) Dual 1229. Read good things, but the automatic queue feature broke a week after I bought it. Used it as a second table for stacking cheap 78s for a few months before I realized how bad it sounded. The speed stability was a lot worse than advertised. Whoever I bought it from claimed to have restored it, too. 3) Technics 1200 in DJ-worn shape. Intended to have it modded a bit to use with 78s, but never got around to it. 4) Rek-O-Kut Rondine 3 made by Esoteric Sound for use with 78s. Infinitely-adjustable 16-90 RPM, generally good specs for a ~$1,000 table. Used for several years, generally about as good as it gets for most 78 collectors. A lot of well-regarded reissue CDs were made (by others) with this table. Decent mid-level Jelco transcription tonearm. I generally liked this setup, but it still has an upper-mid-end sound. 5) Technics SP-10R. Endgame. Albert Porter panzerholz plinth, upgraded Fidelity Research FR-66S and Viv Labs Rigid Float tonearms. Soon to have a Soundsmith Strain Gauge to supplement the Shure V15 Vx (generally the best it gets for 78s because dozens of stylii are needed and MC cartridges are non-starters) |
My first was a portable wind-up 78 player, with steel needles, or dried hawthorn needles for a softer sound. Given to me by a grandmother, probably to the disgust of my parents who had to listen! In those days we had a massively heavy teak Garrard radiogram. My mother had me chop it into firewood and I knew no better than to comply. It was chopped up as my brother had bought a Philips mono autochanger with a ceramic pickup. Next table was my wife-to-be's Sony, replaced with a Garrard SP25 MkIV. Left that behind in the UK, and bought a piece of Radio Shack crap on arrival in Canada. Then got seduced by CDs and didn't come back until I got a RP3/Shure V15 about 2006. Stepped up to an SME 10/Series V in 2011, and acquired a second SME 10 this year. No intention whatsoever of buying any more tables! |
dogberry,
Yes! I forgot about the steel needle on my first TT. My father talked about cactus needles being used at one time, I had no experience with that. Indeed, there was to be a long succession of TT's in my future, but that wasn't so uncommon in the 60's now was it? |
Wow. So many here are into Japanese turntables. As a generality electrical engineering: great. Mechanical engineering: not so. Problem is nearly all the SQ functionality of a TT is on the mechanical side. Many people believe that if the platter rotates at exactly 33.33333rpm that's job done. Not so. The biggest engineering objective is to ensure the stylus is only free to move by tracking the groove. So no slop allowed all the way from the main bearing, through the arm bearing, cartridge cantilever right to the stylus. That requires superlative engineering of TT, arm and cart. Most Japanese TTs and ,where appicable their associated arms, do not possess this. |