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Most hyped turntable, tonearm, and cartridge?

Which turntable, tonearm, and cartridge do you think are most hyped?

One of my friends who owns Garrard 301, Thorens 124 and EMT ?? told me that those three vintage turntables are as good as one can get for the price points, beating most modern turntables costing under $10K. However, I've also read that Garrard 301 is over hyped.
My friend also insists that Ortofon RMG 309 tonearm and the original SPU Silver Meister (not MKii) are best for Garrard and Thorens. I wonder whether the Ortofon arm and SPU cartridge are over rated. 
Your thought?
ihcho

Showing 2 responses by mijostyn

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Chakster, why the 3P? I am especially fond of the 3G. It has removable arm wands of different effective masses so you can tune it to any cartridge and like head shells you can keep several cartridges loaded up ready to go.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
ihcho, those people are on another planet. Stay away from antiques. They are antiques for a reason. For 10K there is so much modern equipment that will handily out perform any of that stuff you mention above. In a modern system with solid output down to 20 Hz those turntables are awful. Big heavy arms and low compliance cartridges have a hard time following record irregularities (warps) adding distortion and increasing record wear. 
I am not into romantic sound. I am into accurate sound. With a good system you are better off with modern turntables, tonearms and cartridges. Do your antique collecting on the side. Get into old cars or something.  
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