Kenwood KD-990 turntable

[spikeyfaz]

After years of faffing around with belt and idler drive tt's, I'm currently running a Kenwood KD-990. I love the sound of this tt but recently had a bit of trouble with it failing to hold it's speed. Fortunately I've got a spare KD-990 and was able to use some parts from this to get things going again.

My concern now is that this is an oldish tt for which parts are going to be presumably hard to come by over the following years. Do I stick with it or sell it onto someone who has better electrical knowledge than me? The obvious replacement is a brand new Technics 1210 but how is this going to compare to the old Kenwood?

I'm not into change for the sake of it but I do have a slight urge to tinker with a Technics!

Regards

[Ammonite Audio]

I'd speak to Vantage Audio, who are very experienced when it comes to these Kenwood 'tables: http://www.vantageaudio.com/

[spikeyfaz]

Cheers Hugo. I'll give them a shout.

[Flyfisher]

Richard at Vantage is really good, but not the fastest, but his work is really very good, based down in Taunton.

[theophile]

After years of faffing around with belt and idler drive tt's, I'm currently running a Kenwood KD-990. I love the sound of this tt but recently had a bit of trouble with it failing to hold it's speed. Fortunately I've got a spare KD-990 and was able to use some parts from this to get things going again.

My concern now is that this is an oldish tt for which parts are going to be presumably hard to come by over the following years. Do I stick with it or sell it onto someone who has better electrical knowledge than me? The obvious replacement is a brand new Technics 1210 but how is this going to compare to the old Kenwood?

I'm not into change for the sake of it but I do have a slight urge to tinker with a Technics!

Regards

Both the Technics and the Kenwood are good decks.The Technics has the advantage of an after-market industry which has developed around modifying it.The Kenwood has the advantage of an underlying skeletal metal plinth.Otherwise with the money spent on modding a Technics,I'd rather buy a much better TT from Japan and use that as a platform for further modding(should the urge really be pressing).

[spikeyfaz]

....The Kenwood has the advantage of an underlying skeletal metal plinth. ....

If I can get my back-up KD-990 working I'm tempted to run it in 'skeletal' form. It'll make mounting different tonearms easier plus I think it might look quite cool! :)

Mike

[DSJR]

These old decks work too well and too long. By the time they need service, parts stock would have run out (probably not many kept in any case). At least the Techie is a current model, spares are readily available and donor DJ'd ones are plentiful..