[ARSCLIST] turntable recommendations

[James Lindner <jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I would like to get a turntable for personal use - not for restoration, just
to play back some of my personal collection of LP's for personal listening.
No transcription disks or anything fancy - just for home use, no "DJ
Scratching" - just playing some old disks in reasonably good condition.

I want something that has good isolation, that may be the most important
issue where my turntable is located. People will walk on the floor nearby -
it is unavoidable. Nothing huge - it has to fit on a normal "entertainment
center" shelf.

I hate hum - I had to throw away a thorens 145c - worst hum in history and I
could not get it out of the system no matter what I did and no matter what I
tried, it did however make a very nice sound as it smashed into the dumpster
when dropped 20 feet - that was probably the best sound it ever made. I am
not interested in another  "project" - I just want something out of the box
that works.  I would prefer automatic or semi-automatic.

Suggestions??

Jim Lindner

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Media Matters LLC. is a technical consultancy specializing in archival audio
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archives that apply the beneficial advances in technology to collection
management.

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Richard L. Hess
Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2005 12:12 AM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] My new "studio"

At 11:14 PM 6/11/2005, phillip holmes wrote:
>  What you
>do with tape looks more "fearsome" than 78 restorations (some of it looks
>positively impossible to fix).  I guess it takes patience for good results,
>whatever the media is.

Well, I joke about knowing what I don't know for grooved media. Selecting
the correct stylus and tracking force is something that is "fearsome" to
me. It's all what you get used to. I've been playing with tape for a long
time. I used to joke in high school (in the 60s) when asked what instrument
I played, "the recorder.......as in tape." <smile>

>Do you have any idea what the weight is?  Items like that can cost an arm
>and/or leg to ship to Texas from Montreal.

I paid $500 CDN for it in Toronto, I would expect that you can get a good,
electrostatically shielded transformer from a far more local manufacturer.
It's about 100 pounds--it's all copper windings. It needs to be isolated
and mounted away from the room.

SquareD make good transformers. Check with your local electrical
distributor. Ask for an electrostatically shielded transformer. See what he
comes up with. That's how I found Marcus.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard L. Hess                           email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Vignettes
Media                           web:   http://www.richardhess.com/tape/
Aurora, Ontario, Canada             (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX