2. analog
  3. 138483-3034

What is the fascination?

I have to ask what is the fascination with these older turntables?  I recently listened to an older SP 10 MKII with a Jelco and Older SME arm with Koetsu and Stanton cartridges.  The sound was very good I will admit but I cannot say it was better than the 1200G or even a 1200GR for that matter.  Heck even the Rega RP 8 is really an amazing sounding turntable for the money and they are brand new.   These tables are coming up on 40 plus years old.  One forum contributor said a turntable should not have any sound at all.  I agree and the newer tables get closer to that "no sound" than many of these colored (smooth,  warm) sounding turntables   I recently purchased a Pickering ESV 3000 MM cartridge that arrived in the mail yesterday and I had to ask myself, "what am I doing?"  So with that being said, why the fascination?  If one want to change the sound of the table, start with the cartridge, they all do sound different.  Nowadays the tables and arms are so good and engineered based on the earlier designs and bettered.  Also, when you buy say an older used arm, how do you know its been cared for?  Arms bearings can be screwed up pretty bad when one tries to tighten cartridges with the headshell attached to the tonearm or the tonearm mounted on the table and many people do not even know they are destroying their arms bearings so I mean you really have to know who you are getting the arm from and check the bearings etc.  There is a lot of risk with turntables, much more than with any components because of so many moving parts that do get old and break.  Why the fascination? 
tzh21y
fsonicsmith's avatar
fsonicsmith
948 posts
 
Personally, and only personally, I prefer mating a vintage deck-restored or revitalized by a pro, with a modern era arm, in my case Reed 3P's. My "trusted guy" for deck restoration mostly gravitates toward SME 3009's. When he got a chance to see, install, and listen to my Reed 3P on my Thorens TD124, he immediately made efforts to secure two Reed 3P's for his personal Gerrard 301. That speaks volumes IMO. The tonearms of the day ('55-'62) have been significantly bettered by modern arms. High compliance MM's ruled the day back then. Modern cartridges mate better with modern arms. 
https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10239&cs_id=1023903&p_id=2747&seq=1...
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
My Red 3P "12 Cocobolo works fine with all vintage cartridges, especially the Garrott p77i. It's amazing tonearm for sure, but i love top vintage tonearms on the same level, definitely not from the 50s era, but from the 70s/80s  
crankstedr53's avatar
crankstedr53
4 posts
 
As for me, a used turntable affords me a higher end table than I can buy new on my budget . 
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,768 posts
 
Inclined to agree with @fsonic above.
I have 2 fully restored Garrard 401s with Audiosilente idler wheels. The early twin-spark model is in a slate plinth, the other in a walnut topped birch ply plinth. Both run new Jelco 12" arms (850 and 750 respectively) For the money, and apart from possibly a Lenco L75, there is no finer turntable solution.
boxer12
8,656 posts
 
fsonicsmith,
Does the old Thornes motor have any identification on it? I'd like to pick one up to use on my table. Been using different hurst model motors & although they do the job, they are throw aways & rather under powered IMO. In regard to vintage, I'm running an old signature Grado as well as an old empire 4000diii. I love those cartidges! The grado is better than 25 years old & the empire is around 40 years old. When set up properly, they are sublime. 
More to discover