Have your say & ask the experts

Cheap lid hinges which were a joke, cheap chipboard plinth with cheap plastic laminate, cheap looking rubber feet, bad cable, cheap finish (even on my last one which was blue) and underneath it got worse with wobbly motor and a plastic pulley where no-one had even bothered to trim off the injection moulded 'flashing' which would have snagged the rubber band if I had not trimmed it off myself!

OK my last Rega Planar 3 (the blue one with a Goldring 1042) was some years ago now. A close friend recently purchased - at my recommendation - a Rega P3-24 with Elys and TT-PSU and Fono Mini. It is evident that Rega are still up to their usual bang-up QC tricks. Although the unit sounds great it still looks like it was built as a GCSE school project by 16 year olds! It has some refinements; better signal lead and better motor but the RB-301 arm is still dotted with little powder coated metal 'burrs' and the pulley is still un-trimmed and the anti-skate 'plunger' is a joke. Imprecise, loose and easily pushed in by accident. Same for the counterweight. On my old Rega 3 at least I got a nice small, heavy and tight fitting counterweight but the new ones are big and light and sloppy.

I bring all this up because I have been thinking about setting up a seperate Vinyl/PC system in another room and have been reading a lot about different turntable options. (I am out of the loop a bit after many years). Of course the Rega is still up there at the top from past (and present) experience of the sound I cannot ignore it. (I can happily ignore their MM cartridges though!) BUT. I have been reading an awful lot lately about people turning away from such things as Projects and Regas and turning to the venerable Technics SL-1210 (and one or two other good old DD units from the 1970s like the PL-71). I had my doubts but an awful lot of seemingly sensible people, some with a LOT better turntables than Regas, are heaping praise on the Technics SL-1210. The machine has been 'hiding' in teenagers bedrooms and clubs and transit vans, safe from the scrutiny of hifi mags for some 30 years.

I saw the latest incarnation of the breed (Technics SL-1210M5GEB) and it looks a million dollars! It looks well built, well finished and is NOT a heap of plastic junk like my 'flat earth' derived prejudices led me to believe. It looks like a really capable bit of kit.

I have not had a chance to listen to one though. And especially not with a decent MC cartridge like a Denon DL-103 or AT OC9. So my question is; have any of you had the chance to listen to this gorgeous looking TT in a home hifi system context?

Did it compare favourably with 'hifi' turntables of a similar price (£350 - £499)?

Thanks

JohnDuncan:

Course, you do know the Rega motor was deliberately decoupled from the plinth and was supposed to wobble, right....?

No I have no DJ aspirations, but if a really well made and great looking turntable can sound as good as one made from chipboard then I am game.

Maybe I am just getting a little jaundiced about what passes for hifi (or 'audiophile') nowadays and want something that was designed and engineered from the ground up as a turntable rather than a bit of laminated chipboard.

I am also looking at Thorens (older models as well as the current TD-160HD) because they engineered their turntables.

chebby:

Maybe I am just getting a little jaundiced about what passes for hifi (or 'audiophile') nowadays and want something that was designed and engineered from the ground up as a turntable rather than a bit of laminated chipboard.

fatboyslimfast:

I'm not a fan of the RB arms - the end-of-side distortion that they are known for really annoys me (I had a Planar 2 for 15 years so am well aquainted with this).

However, I would love to know what a 1210 with a Roksan Nima on it would sound like... anyone done this (or heard of this being done?)

chebby:

if a really well made and great looking turntable can sound as good as one made from chipboard then I am game

Can't you find some good looking turntables?