Turntable, Vinyl help................please

The Creature (Technics SL-1200MKII thru V) is definitely not entry level. Its beef to price ratio is high because it trickles down technology (and the R&D money) used to produce a state of the art quartz locked record cutting lathe--a lathe that is still used in the majority of current vinyl productions. With some readily available modifications from http://www.kabusa.com the deck is up there in the multi thousand dollar ($4-5K) performance for around $900.

The Lenco idler wheel deck project uses a classic deck with some modern plinth refinements/tonearm changes which take it to high end performance.

Belt drive units simply cannot compete because of sheer volume. Still in the $2,000 range it's impossible to get a decent combination of speed stability, good tonearm and plinth. Just read the Vinyl Asylum archives and read the complaints. The last one I read was a Gyrodec owner complaining of speed instability!

Speaking of salaries, it is pitiful to watch job postings for $5-6/hr for skilled jobs here in the US Caribbean. Should be illegal. Oops, that sounded socialist!

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Winegasman,

Sorry if I inadvertently pushed some button, but while poverty is important raising it on this thread was irrelevant. Ev314 did not ask, "Should I buy a $600 turntable or donate the money to UNICEF."

Whether you like it or not, most rigs that retail new for $1K or less in 2005 dollars are entry level in audiophile terms. I also own one and that's just reality. It's not a bad rig but compared to my main rig it's - well - entry level!

We're on Audiogon, not the Walmart forum. Entry level here does not mean junk. Entry means the door is open. I suppose some few might still take that as a reason to despair, and to avoid getting back into vinyl altogether because they can't go out and buy a Walker Proscenium. But you, Ev314, I and most other vinyl-philes can and do take it as a challenge to get the most one can with the resources available. You had the good sense and inclination to maximise your dollars by choosing used equipment and refurbishing as necessary. Give other budding vinyl-philes credit for the same initiative you displayed. They won't disappoint you.

Mr. Winegasman unfortunally Dougdeacon is correct in his postings of entry lvl, well maybe a little high, but no sence in splitting hairs. I also concur with him and others if you can afford it, moving up to the Nottingham Horizon or something like it, will be well worth it.

As far as scratched lp's go as others have said depends how bad they are. It is easy these days to find n/m lp's on ebay for cheap unless you want really rare stuff.
If these are the lp's you used when you were a teenager you may want to replace some of them as I have done lol.

Next you are going to have to clean them. Remember you are now used to digital with the black background, dirty records make noise, clean ones don't, well at least almost none / depends on the pressing.

Good luck and remember as Mikey Fermer says the mmf-5 can kick the crap out af any cd player.

peace
Ron

Ev314, if you're like most of us you will be upgrading sometime in the not too distant future. Keeping this in mind I would say that the fact that the Rega arm is better than the Pro-ject that comes on any Music Hall table is really not that important. I say this because if you decide to change tables you will most likely want to sell the table with the arm that came on it because you are more likely to get most of your money back that way. The Rega's do have the advantage of being able to handle many more cartridges than the Pro-ject, but I believe that the Music Hall's have better speed stability. You will enjoy either of these and I would venture to guess that you would be happy with the Technics that Psychicanimal is so fanatical about.

I started back into vinyl almost three years ago now. I started with a MMF 7 and used it until about last November when I decided to get real serious. You may also want to consider purchasing a used table. That is what I did and got all but $100 back when I sold the MMF 7. You do need to be careful buying used, but that is where A'gon can help. If you can find a used MMF whatever here in the classifieds you will save big and not loose anything to depreciation. Music Hall go very fast so you really have to check early and often.

As far as record cleaning. IME you can't do any better than a home-built vacuum RCM unless you're willing to spend some serious money on a Loricraft or Monk. The VPI's and the like are perhaps more convenient but a DIY RCM is likely to have much, much better suction and you can build a very effective model for less than $50. Cleaning supplies are essential to getting the most from vinyl, but it is money well spent as you will be able to achieve stunning playback from some records that many would think would be just too dirty to ever sound good again.