Auto TT For 45's

[gurru991]

I use a couple of manual TTs for everyday use but would like to have an auto direct drive tt for playing my 45's. Any suggestions ?
Jeff

[Audio Al]

Ask the wife if you can have a juke box

Normally hold 100 plus singles and most look great as well

[gurru991]

No wife so no permission needed. I've looked at jukeboxes a few times & am tempted but its more of a space thing.

[Rare Bird]

Dansette then

[Audio Al]

No wife so no permission needed

Quality

Same as me then

[DSJR]

Oh FFS!

The Garrard AT6/60/60mk2 series often come up in plinths on eBay for not too silly money - the ones at £60+ are too much money IMO. Get one, clean and degrease the mech and lubricate the motor and main bearing spindle and thrust-race keeping the auto trip parts CLEAN AND OIL-FREE! Fit a Stanton 500V3 or Ortofon OM Pro/GT (the OM Pro has been used by the Beeb when they regularly played records on radio 1 and 2) at 4g (M7 headshells widely available both new and used) and off you go. The AT95e and AT91/Rega Carbon should also be very happy in a good working example of these.

By the way, the related and slightly later SL65 decks are good too, and a full service manual is available on VE if you sign up.

Garrard's SL72/75/95 and Zero 100 models are great as well, although the Zero 100 is fetching higher money now because of the looks and tonearm design. The Lab80 series has a rather clumsy 'umbrella' type of auto-drop system, which works, but the Duals below have this system better perfected to a fine art IMO!

BSR did autochange versions of the MP60/P128 model, able to take the same cartridges mentioned above, but I don't think any were sold as separate decks in plinths, normally turning up in better radiograms and portables.

Other popular autochangers are the Duals, the idler models especially being top quality, quieter than the Garrards but in the UK, good ones are getting pricier. The 1216 was the basic one for decent cartridges and it happily tracked an M75-ED with no instability at all at 1.25g. For singles though, an AT95e or Rega carbon would be my first choice.

All the above with magnetic pickups can be used. Those that come up with ceramic cartridges such as the Sonotone 9TAHC/3509/3559, BSR SC12M and Acos equivalents will need a line level input of VERY high impedance - around 1 to 2 Meg Ohms. Used this way, the better ones can sound surprisingly good, with enhanced surface noise only really giving the game away, but the sound truly horrid into the usual 10 - 50k impedance input of modern aux inputs.

Lecture over - does this help a bit? - and DON'T buy a Dansette. A Hacker, better Bush, LATE Pye Black Box with Garrard Autoslim fitted and Dynatron Mazurka are in a totally different league as these things go, although most need some serious (capacitor) attention if major faults are to be minimised in the future!

[DSJR]

Oh FFS!

The only really good direct drive autochangers were certain Duals and Technics models from the early to mid 70's I recall and I don't think many were imported to the UK. canada though, may offer some real hope. The Techie I'm thinking of most od the SL1350 (I think it's called). Duals were mainly idler driven (see below).

The Garrard AT6/60/60mk2 series often come up in plinths on eBay for not too silly money - the ones at £60+ are too much money IMO. Get one, clean and degrease the mech and lubricate the motor and main bearing spindle and thrust-race keeping the auto trip parts CLEAN AND OIL-FREE! Fit a Stanton 500V3 at 3g or Ortofon OM Pro/GT (the OM Pro has been used by the Beeb when they regularly played records on radio 1 and 2) at 4g (M7 headshells widely available both new and used) and off you go. The AT95e and AT91/Rega Carbon at just under 2g should also be very happy in a good working example of these.

By the way, the related and slightly later SL65 decks are good too, and a full service manual is available on VE if you sign up.

Garrard's SL72/75/95 and Zero 100 models are great as well, although the Zero 100 is fetching higher money now because of the looks and tonearm design. The Lab80 series has a rather clumsy 'umbrella' type of auto-drop system, which works, but the Duals below have this system better perfected to a fine art IMO!

BSR did autochange versions of the MP60/P128 model, able to take the same cartridges mentioned above, but I don't think any were sold as separate decks in plinths, normally turning up in better radiograms and portables.

Other popular autochangers are the Duals, the idler models especially being top quality, quieter than the Garrards but in the UK, good ones are getting pricier. The 1216 was the basic one for decent cartridges and it happily tracked an M75-ED with no instability at all at 1.25g. For singles though, an AT95e or Rega carbon would be my first choice. The 1019 is great too (haven't ever used the other 10** models) and any of the better 12** series are superb and good sounding decks able to take a huge range of modern cartridges, even some MC types with no hum or other issues - not for 45's though unless 12" singles of course

All the above with magnetic pickups can be used. Those that come up with ceramic cartridges such as the Sonotone 9TAHC/3509/3559, BSR SC12M and Acos equivalents will need a line level input of VERY high impedance - around 1 to 2 Meg Ohms. Used this way, the better ones can sound surprisingly good, with enhanced surface noise only really giving the game away, but the sound truly horrid into the usual 10 - 50k impedance input of modern aux inputs.

Lecture over - does this help a bit? - and DON'T buy a Dansette. A Hacker, better Bush, LATE Pye Black Box with Garrard Autoslim fitted and Dynatron Mazurka are in a totally different league as these things go, although most need some serious (capacitor) attention if major faults are to be minimised in the future!

[Beobloke]

I use a couple of manual TTs for everyday use but would like to have an auto direct drive tt for playing my 45's. Any suggestions ?
Jeff

Keep an eye out for the Technics Direct Drive autochangers - SL1350, SL1650, SL-1950, SL-D500 etc. They're really rather good, although make sure that the autochange spindles are with the deck if you find one as they're hard to get hold of on their own. The SL-1350 uses spindles unique to it - the spindles on all the others are the same and interchangeable.

Also, it's not direct drive but what you REALLY need is a Thorens TD-224. Sadly, they're rare and becoming increasingly expensive, hence why I STILL don't have one!

Here's a video of one in action - I could watch it all day... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDan1GgFGzE

[chelsea]

That is extremely cool.

[Audio Al]

Thorens td 224 Mmmmm I want one