This is my favourite turntable.

I stumbled upon a audiogon thread last summer regarding rebuilt/replinthed Lenco L75 and 78's that a fellow named Jean Nantais in Canada started. This is very similar to what Shindo Labs and Lorricraft have been doing with Garrard 301 and 401 tables. These can be built with minimal tools and wood building knowledge for about $100, the Lenco's themselves go for about $150. So, for under $300, one could have a world-class table that is on par with tables in the $10,000 dollar range and up. Any arm that you can dream of: air-bearing, unipivot, whatever, can be installed on the plinth. I have a heavily modded/rewired RB250 on mine with a Denon Dl 103 MC cart, a near perfect combination. The design is an idler wheel as opposed to belt-drive, so the speed stability is spot on. Jean built mine, as I had less than minimal wood working skills, although I plan on building one in the future. The plinth is over six inches tall and the TT weighs in at over 60llbs. Jean also makes a 100 hundred pound model. Anyway, this has been really exciting to me and I know a lot of people on this forum are carpenters to a certain extent and this would be dead easy for them to build. The results are astounding! This is the best TT I have ever heard and I'm trying to spread the word, as 'audiophile' product prices are astronomical and often poor performers. Jean's link is here: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl ... ohnnantais There is also a site called lenco Heaven and a few others devoted to this idea. If you try it, you will not be sorry!

Well, I've got a Project 1.2 turntable. Not that cool, really, but a substantial improvement to the Realistic piece of crap we had. It also has the Oyster cartridge it shipped with, which isn't all that great either. Noisy wiring, somewhat ringy, and my girlfriend fucks it up by getting drunk, stopping the platter while it is running, and scraping the needle across my $100 lps. The belt, therefore, is a little stretched/burned, and the needle is in bad shape.

I want to join the Rega Planar club, but have to pay off all my other gear first.

I bought some sort of Technics table from a friend for $50 recently, and I put a $40 Grado cartridge on it. I did not own a turntable prior to this, but I'm assuming I have a pretty crap setup compared to most of you. I'm happy to be able to listen to records at all, for now, though.

I have a VPI scout with the jmw-9 tonearm and a Dynavector cartridge. I think it sounds great and the VPI is a beautiful piece of machinery. My only complaint with this setup is the device that raises and lowers the tonearm, its actually kind of cheap, and sticks sometimes too. Kind of disappointing; this device on the Rega tonearm is of much better quality and raises and lowers with smooth fluidity.

The VPI is a great value in its price range but if your budget is a little smaller you absolutely can't go wrong with the Rega P3 and RB300.

I've been using a Linn LP12 for about six years now and really can't complain, it's a wonderful sounding turntable. However, it does require more care and attention than the Rega's and most other non-isolated designs. Having the standard Linn power supply also has the annoying feature of making you slip an adapter over the motor pulley to adjust the rpm's.

I'd like to add a thumbs up to Ortofon cartridges. Very smooth and detailed.

I want this one: Transrotor Gravita. Price: 65,000 $

But does it sound any good?

I use a Brinkmann lagrange + 10.5 tonearm + modified emt cartridge

hm, that vestax is pretty sweet... i don't understand the rotorspensive one though. do all of those legs have a point? is it like the ultimate in grounding? or they are all rotors? or just legs? or a robot? huh? i want one! i like good ole technics 1200, mkII? those digital stantons are not so shabby either.