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£500-£1000 Turntable suggestions plz

Buy a Lenco L75 or similar, if you can use a jigsaw make a plywood plinth for it. Remove the stock arm and a Linn geometry arm (Linn, Pro-ject, Hadcock etc) fits into the standard arm-hole. If you don't want to make a plinth you can probably buy one from ebay. The Lenco will probably need re-oiling but you won't have to touch it for years. Upgrading the ball in the main bearing to silicone makes a further upgrade.
 
Sounds like you're on this route already but if it helps any, I was in your position a couple of years ago. I ended up buying a pre-cirkus LP12/ valhalla/ basik from a nice chap on here and was very happy with it.

I've since upgraded the arm, cart, PS and bearing / chassis since and it sounds really nice now. I fitted the upgrades and set it up myself. LP12's seem to have a rep as being very fussy and difficult to set up but I found it quite straightforward after reading Peter Swain's excellent guide on the Linn forum. Perhaps I just got an "easy" one...

btw: If you're ever considering different tonearms or are looking at a deck without one or whatever, the Roksan Nima is a fantastic arm for £500.

good hunting whatever you go for!
 
@jimification - that's encouraging to hear re setup. Thanks

So the ittok is the one to go for.
I'm definitely not buying unseen of ebay & never see anything locally. Any recommendations for dealers that would be worth checking or anyone else known to buy and sell these turntables?
 
All this talk of Linn Sondeks urged me to get mine out of the loft
I new it wanted some work so I stripped it down, and fitted a new set of stainless steel sub chassis mounting bolts and recapped the Valhalla.
Set it up rough and put an arm on it without event doing any proper alignment and I am amazed how good it sounds TBH :cool:.
It still needs a push to start but speed is spot on
I do intend to sell this turntable so this is also a shamless plug :rolleyes:
LP12 by 337alant, on Flickr
Alan
 
Some peoples opinion seems to be that a grand is too much for an 02 LP12 w/ basik power supply & akito arm. Been in contact with TomTom & cheapest option there was £1500 for one with same arm but with valhala psu. I know this is from a dealer so obviously paying for the added piece of mind of buying from a dealer would bring (I'm mainly thinking warranty here) but even so, £1500 seems a bit steep, especially as my budget started out at £3-500. I just want a deck in good condition that i can use & which isn't going to cost the earth.
 
I have a Planar 3 in the classifieds, a cheap but very decent place from which to dip your toe into vinyl.
 
Some peoples opinion seems to be that a grand is too much for an 02 LP12 w/ basik power supply & akito arm. Been in contact with TomTom & cheapest option there was £1500 for one with same arm but with valhala psu. I know this is from a dealer so obviously paying for the added piece of mind of buying from a dealer would bring (I'm mainly thinking warranty here) but even so, £1500 seems a bit steep, especially as my budget started out at £3-500. I just want a deck in good condition that i can use & which isn't going to cost the earth.

Try Gauis of the forum. He can perhaps help with a basic Linn in good nick. I suspect price and condition are closely linked.
 
Part of the reason behind wanting a Linn is because I've had Rega P3 for the last 10 years or so & really want something better. I sold the Rega a while back because I needed to raise some cash but am now in a position to buy a replacement for it & want something better. Most of my music is on vinyl, and lots of it has been cleaned on the VPI cleaning machine I also owned so it deserves something decent to play it on. I've pretty much abandoned CD in recent years, use either Spotify or Deezer for convenience but really want to start buying / playing vinyl again because at preset I'm looking at several hundred albums with no (decent) way of listening to them. There's certainly no doubt whether vinyl is for me, in fact this is the longest I've been without a decent record player since I was at school.
So tah for the offer of the Rega but really looking for something that's going to be atleast a step-up in performance, it
 
So i listened to all the good advice and..... went & did the exact opposite!
Saw an LP12 for sale locally on fleabay for not very much & in a moment of madness decided to chance it. It's a, supposedly recently serviced, early non-corner braced one with no lid or base board and a hadcock uni-pivot arm. If I manage to post pics, would someone care to identify which Hadcock arm it is please? And does this arm use a unique cut out on the arm board or am I getting an arm board I could use with something else?
This is probably the least sensible purchase I could've made (early s/n - bits missing - slightly left field choice of arm from what I understand, possibly not the best choice to go with this deck) but it was a spur of the moment decision based on price & location. So long as I can listen to my vinyl again I'll be happy & might be an interesting project to try improving on what's there if I like it. Is the fact that it's such an early one going to be restrictive as far as upgrades are concerned?
Got to arrange collection yet but hopefully I'll soon find out just how good or bad it is! My last ebay purchase wasn't all it was supposed to be, but if things just turned up working I'd probably never get round to servicing / improving them & so if I've bought (yet another) project, so be it!
 
yqara4a9
 
The Hadcock is a GH228 and probably dates from around the mid-80s at a guess. Assuming it all works it should be a nice sounding deck. The Hadcock is a low mass arm so best suited to high-compliance carts, think thing like an Ortofon 2M Black, 540/II, AT150MLX etc. It's a capable arm but, as I'm sure you will shortly learn, a PITA to set up!
 


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