Best vintage TT purchase option

Welcome! Check out VPI too for tables. REGA also makes some nice ones too.


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I am unsure how many Vintage Enthusiasts are here, but AudioKarma would be a suggested resource for Vintage anything.

Welcome aboard and have fun.

Welcome to AS.

For performance I do think some of the current Rega and such would be the way to go.

For vintage I'd choose a direct drive, there is a big following for vintage Japanese DD turntables. Like you, I like the vintage Dual, I don't know enough to recommend one model over another. I got to use a friend's Dual for a while while in high school, I really wanted to keep it but he wouldn't part. It had the strobe on it. The sound also killed the table I had.

Last I heard Girard was long out of business. I'm not sure if there is a company keeping the tables alive or not. About a year ago a friend bought one of their 301's, the one with the large granite base.

A couple years back Technics brought out a revamped 1200 you might be interested in. Personally, I'm not on that bandwagon. I think the hype is mostly reputation and nostalgia. Although some of their new tables have gotten good reviews.

Mr Peabody said:

Welcome to AS.

For performance I do think some of the current Rega and such would be the way to go.

For vintage I'd choose a direct drive, there is a big following for vintage Japanese DD turntables. Like you, I like the vintage Dual, I don't know enough to recommend one model over another. I got to use a friend's Dual for a while while in high school, I really wanted to keep it but he wouldn't part. It had the strobe on it. The sound also killed the table I had.

Last I heard Girard was long out of business. I'm not sure if there is a company keeping the tables alive or not. About a year ago a friend bought one of their 301's, the one with the large granite base.

A couple years back Technics brought out a revamped 1200 you might be interested in. Personally, I'm not on that bandwagon. I think the hype is mostly reputation and nostalgia. Although some of their new tables have gotten good reviews.

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huh? Garrard Turntables - The Legend Continues

The Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company of Swindon, Wiltshire, was a British company that was famous for producing high-quality gramophone turntables. It was formed by the jewellers Garrard & Co in 1915. The company was sold to Plessey, an electronics conglomerate, in 1960. During the period 1976-1978, Garrard developed demonstrators of the novel video disc technology. Although the team recognised the future potential of this data storage technology, Plessey chose not to invest. After several years in decline, Garrard was sold by Plessey to Gradiente Electronics of Brazil in 1979 and series production was moved to Brazil (Manaus). The remaining Garrard research and development operation in Swindon was reduced to a skeleton operation until completely shut down in 1992. Then, Gradiente licensed the Garrard name to Terence O'Sullivan, who operated as Loricraft Audio, in 1997.





A Garrard turntable, Model 1212
Between 1992 and 1997, the Garrard brand name was licensed to other companies in the US, which imported many electronic items built by many different and unrelated Far Eastern manufacturers. These included "Garrard"-branded cassette decks, CD players, stereo receivers, boom-box radio/cassette machines, portable "Walkman" type cassette players, serial-port printer cables, universal TV/audio remote controls, and other miscellany, including turntables that had nothing to do with any original Garrard design.

In 2018, Cadence Audio SA, who also own the British turntable and tonearm manufacturer SME Limited, took ownership of the Garrard brand and registered trademarks when they purchased Loricraft Audio Ltd. The business was restructured to run under the name of Garrard Turntables UK Ltd.

puroagave said:

huh? Garrard Turntables - The Legend Continues

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I would like to recomend Lenco.

Check in //https://www.lencoheaven.net/

it a direct drive turntable, very good sound quality and it gives you the opportunity to make a lot of upgrades on plinth, tonearm, etc.etc.

After my Micro Seiki BL91 and AR PH6 got hit by mother nature and unable to repair, I found an original VPI Classic ( the first classic) from MDP on this site and couldn't be happier. Paired it with a Manley Chinook.

i have 4 turntables; 3 of which are rather expensive more recent designs that i love.

however my 4th turntable is a vintage model which i highly recommend, the direct drive EMT 948. the 948 was designed to be used in radio stations mostly commercially, so it's built like a tank. it won't be 'cheap, cheap' but it should be reasonable, and as a European product should be accessible in your area.

it comes with it's own arm, but it's not too daunting to have an arm board made which bolts in place replacing the standard arm and allows for choices of other arms. i use a different arm than standard. most 948's have an integral phono stage, but i don't use that.

i'd like to load a picture of my 948 here but we can't do that here (the way i load pictures) unless we have a photo hosting site. so here is a link to another forum where i was able to load pictures.

EMT 948 pic

i've owned the following vintage turntables.........the idler Garrard 301, direct drive Technics SP-10 Mk2, and direct drive Technics SP-10 Mk3. all three of those are also very good choices but typically more expensive than a 948.

Mike Lavigne said:

i have 4 turntables; 3 of which are rather expensive more recent designs that i love.

however my 4th turntable is a vintage model which i highly recommend, the direct drive EMT 948. the 948 was designed to be used in radio stations mostly commercially, so it's built like a tank. it won't be 'cheap, cheap' but it should be reasonable, and as a European product should be accessible in your area.

it comes with it's own arm, but it's not too daunting to have an arm board made which bolts in place replacing the standard arm and allows for choices of other arms. i use a different arm than standard. most 948's have an integral phono stage, but i don't use that.

i'd like to load a picture of my 948 but we can't do that here unless we have a photo hosting site.

i've owned the idler Garrard 301, direct drive Technics SP-10 Mk2, and direct drive Technics SP-10 Mk3. all three of those are also very good choices but typically more expensive that a 948.

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You can upload a photo without a hosting site. Who said that? Just use TapaTalk. We removed the add on link for photos because it was creating duplicate posts. But we don’t require a hosting site for photos. I pay $$ to host all our data including photos.

As I said, I strongly recommend TapaTalk. Makes it way easier to do everything like uploading photos.


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Mike said:

You can upload a photo without a hosting site. Who said that? Just use TapaTalk. We removed the add on link for photos because it was creating duplicate posts. But we don’t require a hosting site for photos. I pay $$ to host all our data including photos.

As I said, I strongly recommend TapaTalk. Makes it way easier to do everything like uploading photos.


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i'm an old guy......makes it harder for me.

i use my camera for pictures and load them from my laptop, always have. not my phone. Tapatalk is for mobile devices. so not relevant for me. and i rarely surf audioshark with my phone, i use my laptop or work computer. so just does not fit my use profile.

Mike Lavigne said:

i'm an old guy......makes it harder for me.

i use my camera for pictures and load them from my laptop, always have. not my phone. Tapatalk is for mobile devices. so not relevant for me. and i rarely surf audioshark with my phone, i use my laptop or work computer. so just does not fit my use profile.

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I’ll check today, but you should still have no issue uploading photos


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Mike said:

I’ll check today, but you should still have no issue uploading photos


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i'm a guy who likes to post pictures, so if you can make it work with my laptop that would be great. thank you.

btw; i'm traveling to Sarasota in early December for a business meeting (not yet called off) and will try to stop by and visit you if you are around. i realize you prefer doing it by appointment so will reach out when i know my time and day.

Testing without photo hosting.

Mike, click GO ADVANCED, click the PAPERCLIP, upload the file (choose file), click upload, close window, click paper clip icon, there’s your picture!

The Dual's were really noisy and plastic, just like the BIC's. I would try and find an old AR or something similar.

Start researching JVC tables. There are strong advocates out there on other forums who have posted perceptions of the best models. They are $1600 or less.

I bought a VPI HW-19 on a whim, I was already a long time VPI owner having had a Scout, Classic and Prime. The HW-19 was damaged in shipping. So I rebuit from the ground up. New motor, pulley, electric, rubber mounts, etc. Sent the bearing to Harry at VPI and he refurbished it for me. Quiet as a mouse.

I was so happy with it after completion that I sold my Prime and this is my only table.

Thank's everyone for you're inputs. Need to do more research then, after all the suggestions

I saw the photos from the link you posted and I'm mesmerized by your "turntables display" ...WOW

The AR was a good table. The poor man's LP12.