hi

with all these analog fans over here, I'd like to know which turntable you've got / would like to have.

at the moment I've got a Project debut TT
I think I'm getting a Rega P3, seems like a fine TT for the price, although there are some second hand beauties lying around.

hey

i have a rega planar 3, and i love it

very simple look, sounds great, and they make an attractive and inconspicuous wall mount so you can isolate it from the floor completely, if you wish

tm

I have a VPI HW-19Jr with a Rega Tonearm (RB300?) and a Sumiko Bluepoint cartridge. I like it. But I have never done any side-by-side comparisons with other fancy-pants turntables.

Bob Weston

I have a rega P2 w/ an ortofon cartridge and it is an incredible turntable. I was very skeptical as to whether there would be a marked quality increase over my old, cheap turntable, until I got the thing home and played it. Anyway I cannot say enough good things about it w/o restorting to movie poster-esque blurbs (Amazing. Brilliant. If you buy on turntable this summer...).

chris

I own a Rega P25. It is noce and I think it sounds very good. Like others, I have not done side-by-side comparisons. If I were going to do it again, I'd probably go with a VPI because they are made in the USA and look cool.

I lived contentedly with a Rega Planar 2 for a couple years, while I was primarily still a CD consumer. Eventually I upgraded to a Basis 1400, which was a dramatic improvement over the P2, even with a modest arm and cartridge (Rega RB250 and Sumiko Oyster). Okay, so I let a skeezy hifi dealer sell me a $1200 record player that looks like it belongs in an Ikea catalog; I haven't regretted it in the least. Since then I have had the arm mechanically modified by Origin Live in the UK, which I would highly recommend to anyone else with one of the popular Rega arms. I've also changed cartridges twice, first to a Benz Micro MC Silver and finally to a Grado Reference Series Master, a moving magnet cartridge with amazing dynamics (great for rock music) and a sweet, satisfying top end (I use a tube phono pre with 1950's-60's white label Amperex tubes, but that's another ball of wax).

Granted, this is not a cheap hobby to get into (neither is owning a studio, although that provides opportunity for financial return), and my advice to friends who express interest is usually "don't get started." But when music is your livelihood, as it probably is for most people who read these forums, a high quality, well-tuned playback system can reveal startling detail, and could be considered an indispensible tool to those of us who record sound for a living (anyway, that's how I justify it). I mean, I can even understand damn near every word on a Shellac record ("put on Wiggy's little suit"). The biggest drawback is that you become more sensitive to every "flaw" of every record you've ever heard, even the ones you love. And of course, you've never encountered such hipocrisy in your life (and felt like such a geekophile) until you realize that many of the records in your collection (see "Indie Rock") probably cost less to create than the equipment on which you're playing them. Fuck it, I don't care, I'm going to go experience an epiphany listening to Thriller.

"Put on Wiggy'slittle suit" ?

What the hell are you talking about?

Cordially,
Bob Weston