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Decent Turntable for £100? Is this possible?

I'm going to put my mint P2 with low mileage original Bias cart on eBay any day for starting bids of £150.
I'm hoping for more judging by the one that recently sold for £270.. Seeing as mine is equally as clean.
May consider £150 for PFM if his wife is willing to raid the piggy bank. Also have a new unused Michael Lim sub platter and double pulley, plus upper brace that I'll part with. Oh, and SS Rega counterweight and end stub.
This fella would love a P2, they are smashing for the money. Only parting with mine to fund the RP6 I couldn't resist..
 
i had a td150 with standard arm and a nagoka mp11 - really great for the price, or a humble planar 2/250 with something on would be good too
 
Some poking about on Gumtree reveals a ProJect Debut 2 in Gt Yarmouth for £90, apparently all good and with a cart. If that's near you (not that Gt Yarmouth is near anywhere else in the world at all) it may be worth a look and an offer. I think that's slightly ambitious on price so if I lived within 50 miles I'd be ringing up and saying "look mate, it sounds OK but the price is a bit real, I have to travel so how about..." before making a bid and organising a day out with my mate, lunch in the pub and a bit of a giggle.
 
I sold my Dad's PL112D on here for £30, it was nicer than the one in the photo and in its box. Had a Shure 75 or 95 iirc.
 
Interesting thread. I'm surprised (what with the 'vinyl revival') that this doesn't come up more often.

Just to point out to anyone not aware - Beobloke really knows turntables!

At the last Audiojumble I declined to buy a bargain deck from him on the pathetic grounds that I already had three and my wife would not be best pleased. His wife raised an eyebrow and pointed out that he had (I think) sixteen :)
 
paulfromcamden said:
At the last Audiojumble I declined to buy a bargain deck from him on the pathetic grounds that I already had three and my wife would not be best pleased. His wife raised an eyebrow and pointed out that he had (I think) sixteen :)
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I must be doing well hiding them, then, as this means there are another 8 she doesn't know about! :D
 
Well, looks like i've started a good debate here....

Thought I would give an update on proceedings. Tried to contact the seller of the Planar 3 (the obvious choice) to see if still available but got no reply so feared the worse - either it got snapped up 3 days ago or Beobloke got there first and added another to his collection (only kidding!).

Meanwhile spotted a ProJect debut III usb phono going for £140 in Southsea - also on Gumtree. Since it was £40 over i got Mrs.Moppit to check with her good friend if this was still a no-go as might not be able to knock him down, long drive to Southsea, bla, bla. Well, stone me! Got the ok! Sent some photos from the ad. She thinks it looks great. If only i had this in the first place...arranged to go listen. Always a good sign when the chap suggests you bring over some of your favourite discs...

Meanwhile, late phone call from the Rega 3 chap...yes its still available...whizzed over, no chance of a demo (worrying) other than checking it spins. At £100 thought it worth the risk...condition looked absolutely fine. Plugged it in at home - sounds spot on! Chuffed! Job done?...not quite...more update to follow in the morning...too tired now...zzzzz
 
There is always a fluke bargain buy which is why I usually back off from these threads.

Ive never seen a decent Planar 3 anywhere remotely near £100. Therefore we can not say this is normally what people could expect. Everyone posts their mega finds which confuses the situation and is not a realistic expectation. It does ever so slightly annoy me which is why I'm mentioning it here

Its a very personal choice based on cosmetic marks and the need for a full service or replacement parts. I have never found the cosmetic condition to be acceptable for the higher sale prices. I would rather buy new at that point.

The OP hinted that it was a cheap, no hassle starter buy. Good for you but if another thread starts we couldnt rely on the possibility of getting a Planar 3 in decent working nick for £100
 
Excellent! I hope that if there are any issues with it then they are only minor. Got to be worth it for that price anyway. What cartridge does it have?Looking forward to hearing how you get on :)
 
Update PT.II

So ended up going to have a look at the Project Debut as well last night. My thoughts were that since this had already been 'approved' in principle and that it also had a phono stage I thought this might be the more sensible choice. The fact that I already had the P3 was good but what if his amp did not have a phono stage? - more expense.. and by the sound of it there should be no problem passing the P3 on (after an extended listening session!)...

To say I was impressed the Project was an understatement. The guy had got it set up perfectly and running through an Arcam Alpha 8 into some humble Goodmans Maxims - it was a very sweet sounding thing - helped largely by perfect condition, well aligned Audio Technica Cartridge. Could not resist so that is now back at home too!
I did not have time last night to do any listening other than to establish that the Rega worked fine. I'll be having a more thorough play tonight and hopefully will upload some pictures over the weekend so you can see what £100 and £140 has managed to get me, including what cartridges fitted (I think the Rega has a Rega cartridge). Will check model numbers/

I have to say many thanks to all your much valued contributions (this was a bit of a team effort!). I do agree that in the case of the Planar 3 this could be a one off but given that we started this just over 24hrs ago it's clear there are bargains out there...just not on Ebay..

Clearly the national (+international) coverage of Ebay means that many enthusiasts get to see everything available and can bid last minute with a small click of the finger - competition is intense! This is great for sellers but for buyers the bargains are clearly on a more local level where extra effort is required.

I think at some point I will need to seek out a decent amp for this chap and it might be good to do this again (for those up to the challenge!). Expect a 'best amp for £100'. Or maybe 'Thrift hifi' is another good title....

His birthday is a couple of weeks time so it will be interesting to see what joy this brings in the meantime. Will report that back too...

Thanks again

Moppit (+ Mrs Moppit + Mrs Moppit's good friend and her hubby)
 
Excellent! It's not too hard to find a nice amp for under £100 by the way, loads of arcam alpha 7/8s around at that kind of money and they are great.

I have seen clamshell Rega brios go for little more than £100 too, they would partner perfectly with the P3 or the Debut.

Then when it comes to speakers, that's easy too, Rega ELAs, Alyas, Juras often go for around £100 give or take £20-30 and linn keilidhs have been going for as little as £180 for a clean early pair and contrary to popular belief, are easy to drive.

I had far more fun playing with hifi at this level than with high end stuff, I love being tasked with putting systems together for friends on a budget, it's great fun and some superb sounds can be achieved for a very modest outlay.
 
Same here too. Built several excellent budget systems for sons and mates for very little outlay. Best was probably Rotel 965BX cd, Rotel RA820 amp and Rega Kytes on Foundation stands for £109.
 
Minstrel SE said:
There is always a fluke bargain buy which is why I usually back off from these threads.
...Good for you but if another thread starts we couldnt rely on the possibility of getting a Planar 3 in decent working nick for £100
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No, maybe not, but we could rely on getting something decent for £100, which was the brief. The man found 2 in 24 hours after all. Now OK, one was £140, but the stuff is out there.

I like playing around with older stuff too. Not long ago I saw a Rotel 965 for £30 in a Cash Converters. That's a steal. They're out there. I can feel something similar coming on for the conservatory come summer.
 
stevec67 said:
I like playing around with older stuff too. Not long ago I saw a Rotel 965 for £30 in a Cash Converters. That's a steal. They're out there. I can feel something similar coming on for the conservatory come summer.
Click to expand...

I got both a rotel 965BX and a Yamaha CDX 496 (or something like that, black case, yellow display and got rave reviews in the late 90's and sounds decent) about 3 months back, £7 for the pair, I kid you not. The Yamaha has a small dent on a corner but the rotel is truly pristine. Both waiting for the next time I'm tasked with putting a cheap system together for a mate.

Oh and I picked a non working linn numerik up for £25 too which I fixed using components already in my parts tray the same week!

If you have an eye for a bargain and you are resourceful then it's easy to put a great system together for beer money, sometimes literally!
 
£240 eh?

That takes me back..I got my LP12, with arm & cart, for £260....
...about 10 years ago now though...!

You'll be trading up before you know it...that's the problem with this game!
 
Bloody hell, a Linn at £260 is a steal. I made money on every LP12 I owned, but never had one as cheap as £260. I sold a good one, no arm, for £275 in about 2000, so yours was very much a bargain.

I'm short a decent 2nd CDP just now, the good one is off for repair and I need a replacement pro tem and then to set up a B system. A Rotel 965 would be perfect.
 
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