Technics L DD33 direct drive, automatic turntable.

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bluegrassphile

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I've had this TT in my basement storage room thinking I'd never use it. It originally belonged to my sister and brother-in-law. They bought it in a whole system package from Best Buy in the late '80s to early '90s. They hardly ever used it. In fact, I'm not sure they used it at all. It's in mint condition but very dusty. It badly needs cleaning up and may need servicing, I'm not sure. It has the original cartridge. It's missing the original cables and ground wire.

I'm getting back into high end audio after about a 40 year hiatus. I'll be purchasing a top notch system based around a Luxman L509X and Harbeth Super HL 5+ 40th Anniversary Edition speakers, along with streaming hardware/software, and CD ripping/storage hardware. I wasn't planning on getting into turntables and vinyl but if cleaning the Technics TT up and servicing isn't too expensive, and it produces great tone I might reconsider.

What advice, comments, suggestions, questions, do you have regarding this TT? Would this be considered a "vintage" TT? Will it sound as good as modern TTs?
 
I like Ortofon, they have a broad line so something will fit your budget. I've not used one personally but people really like the Denon carts.

That table would be alright to get your feet wet but I wouldn't put it on par with the rest of the gear you are looking at, IMO.
 
Mr Peabody said:
I like Ortofon, they have a broad line so something will fit your budget. I've not used one personally but people really like the Denon carts.

That table would be alright to get your feet wet but I wouldn't put it on par with the rest of the gear you are looking at, IMO.
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Yeah, I wasn't expecting too much. It was considered a great TT for it's time. But I wasn't expecting it to compete with today's high end TTs. It'll be interesting to see how it sounds.
 
bluegrassphile said:
Anyone else know anything about late '80s/early '90s Technics TTs and how they might sound with Luxman amplification and Harbeth speakers?
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Look at their current selling price on EBay and that will give you some insight into what people think of them. For example, your Technics is currently bringing between $50-$75 on EBay.
 
Thanks guys, I appreciate all the info. I'm not going to expect too much. I think at those Ebay prices it wouldn't be worth the money to do much upgrading, if any at all.
 
bluegrassphile said:
Anyone else know much about this TT? Thanks for the info.


Tom
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I just checked again and two of these tables recently sold on Ebay. One sold for $53.00 and the other one sold for $56.00. I doubt this is a table that many people on this forum have experience with. Unpack it, plug it in, and see if it turns on and comes up to speed. If it does appear to operate, dust it off yourself and buy a cheap Grado cartridge and install it. Unless you consider this table to be some type of family heirloom, I wouldn't spend much money on it based on what these tables are bringing on Ebay.
 
mep said:
I just checked again and two of these tables recently sold on Ebay. One sold for $53.00 and the other one sold for $56.00. I doubt this is a table that many people on this forum have experience with. Unpack it, plug it in, and see if it turns on and comes up to speed. If it does appear to operate, dust it off yourself and buy a cheap Grado cartridge and install it. Unless you consider this table to be some type of family heirloom, I wouldn't spend much money on it based on what these tables are bringing on Ebay.
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Yeah, I'm not going to spend much, if anything, on the TT. It has a cartridge, so I'll just do as you suggest and try it out. If it was a better TT I might consider a cartridge upgrade. But I think that would be a waste of money.
 
I'm going to try and revive this thread to see if anyone has any new thoughts or info about this TT. Anyone run across one? I'm going to clean it up and give it a try.

Mike, is there a particular way I'm supposed to hook this TT up to the INT 250?
 
bluegrassphile said:
I'm going to try and revive this thread to see if anyone has any new thoughts or info about this TT. Anyone run across one? I'm going to clean it up and give it a try.

Mike, is there a particular way I'm supposed to hook this TT up to the INT 250?
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Do you have a phono preamp?
 
you were going to clean it up and try it out over a year ago, did you ? Regardless, waste little to any $$ on it IMO, it's no where near a '1200' in quality
 
I dunno...with the responses I've received so far I'm thinking what's the use? Other than to satisfy my curiosity. Not that it's very strong. Right now I don't even have any vinyl. I was just kind of hoping it was a better quality TT. Technics was a very highly thought of brand, especially in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. I know the audio magazines (back then) liked Technics/Panasonic components. They must have fallen in quality and from favor in the '70s through the '90s?
 
bluegrassphile said:
I dunno...with the responses I've received so far I'm thinking what's the use? Other than to satisfy my curiosity. Not that it's very strong. Right now I don't even have any vinyl. I was just kind of hoping it was a better quality TT. Technics was a very highly thought of brand, especially in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. I know the audio magazines (back then) liked Technics/Panasonic components. They must have fallen in quality and from favor in the '70s through the '90s?
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The problem is your particular Technics model wasn't within 10 zip codes of the best tables Technics built. This was one of their cheap tables designed for people on a serious budget. Technics tables didn't fall in quality, their tables were just built to serve different price points and markets. There is a reason why the Technics SP-10 MKII and MKIII tables are still highly sought after. You won't find them on Ebay going for $50.00.
 
Tom, there are plenty of decent entry point TTs out there if you just want to get back into playing records a bit. Used is even better for cost.

For what you might need to pay someone to go over and repair the old one, you could just get a new TT and not worry.
 
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