TT Conundrum

[Mike]

I don't know what to do now.....

I'm not having much turntable related luck lately. First thing to go wrong was me buying (or at least paying for) a brand new Technics 1210 Mk2 from Empire Direct on New Years eve only to find out a couple of weeks later that they've gone down the bog. Yesterday I more or less got confirmation from the administrators that my money is gone for good! Which was nice.

In the meantime... I put my Denon DP-3000 on ebay and the other night someone hit the BIN button, 'great' I thought! Except the bugger hasn't paid up and refuses to respond to the invoices and messages I've sent him. I think he's pissing me about TBH.

So what do I do next?

I've got a budget of around £600 and a Denon TT that I can either keep or have another go at selling. Sooooo.... Do I keep the Denon and blow it all on a nice tonearm or persevere with selling it and splurge out on a different deck?

The thing is... financially speaking, this will pretty much have to be IT for the rest of this year, I've got too many other up and coming expenses which is going to limit my buying ability. The only thing I'll be able to do is spend bits n' bobs here and there on DIY tweakage...

Help!

Lost & adrift of the North East.

[YNWaN]

Did you pay for your Technics by credit card - if you did, I'm reasonably certain you can get your money back from them.

Report the other bloke to ebay and relist it - I don't know what to advise with regard to keeping the Denon - it's not my kind of deck but it may be yours.

[Mike]

Oh yes...

I should have pointed out that I paid by debit card. I've had confirmation from the administrators that there's no money for us poor old customers. I've also opened a 'payment dispute' with my bank but it seems that I'm unlikely to get a refund from them unless they can reclaim the payment form the administrators... Which looks unlikely because the 'company' has no money.

To all intents and purposes its a write off... If I get anything back it will be a 'windfall' as far as I'm concerned at this point. Time to chalk it down to experience and move on...

[Marco]

Nightmare - you're not having much luck, Mikey...

I've got a budget of around £600 and a Denon TT that I can either keep or have another go at selling. Sooooo.... Do I keep the Denon and blow it all on a nice tonearm or persevere with selling it and splurge out on a different deck?

It's the latter option for me. The Empire saga has been a royal pain in the arse, and I hope you can get something resolved, but if you've got £600 to spend, not including what you get for the Denon, then I see no reason not to proceed with your original plan to buy a Techy (this time from a 100% reliable source) and spend the remainder of your budget on modifying it.

With the funds you've got available and those 'due in' you can certainly afford to buy a new 1210 and a Time Step PSU, along with some other mods, possibly a Jelco 250ST, which would work really well with your AT33PTG, or if not you could rewire the stock arm and invest in a decent mat and support feet, which would also give you excellent results

Marco.

P.S I you go the latter route I've got a nice headshell you can have at a good discount

[Mike]

Funny you should say that bud....

I've been eyeing up a MK5G, but is it worth the extra £120 - £150(ish) over say, a MK2? It looks nicer but what about the arm? Is it that much better?

Then again there's always the used market (within reason)... The budget is slightly flexible which may give me more scope for the tonearm...

Decisions, desisions!...

[John]

If you want good sound on the cheap its worth going down the same route as Beachy and go for the Old Lenco they are really capable and you can lots of fun altering and adapting £600 on a lenoc would get a decent arm and reasonable cart that would sound pretty good
But Marco suggestion may give you more benfits when you have more spare money

[Mike]

If you want good sound on the cheap its worth going down the same route as Beachy and go for the Old Lenco they are really capable and you can lots of fun altering and adapting £600 on a lenoc would get a decent arm and reasonable cart that would sound pretty good

Grrrrr!

I gave away a mint(ish) GL75 to a forum member not so long ago. I even paid for the bloody postage!

Where the hell is Alex D these days anyway?

[Marco]

Mikey,

I've been eyeing up a MK5G, but is it worth the extra £120 - £150(ish) over say, a MK2? It looks nicer but what about the arm? Is it that much better?

Mmm... From experience, I'd say no to your first question if SPPV is the most important consideration, however there's no getting away from the fact that the MK5G is considerably better finished, and has a real 'feel' of quality about it.

With regard to the arm, I'd say that it's noticeably better, mainly through the improved OFC wiring and higher quality interconnects and phono plugs, but how significant that is all depends on your plans to change the arm or not...

Then again there's always the used market (within reason)... The budget is slightly flexible which may give me more scope for the tonearm...

My choice would be to go for a new one so you know exactly where it's been... It's a bit like marrying a virgin instead of a hooker

Marco.

[Mike]

Hmmm... well pulling the arm apart and doing a re-wire wouldn't scare me too much. If that would do the trick I'd probably be happy to live with it for the rest of the year or so... but a better arm would certainly be on the cards in the long run.

Thing is... whats this 'titanium' thing all about then?

I've a suspicion that it's just hype TBH, possibly some bits are 'titanium coloured' but there's no actual performance advantage. But thats just a gut feeling, I'd be happy to be proved wrong!... Anyone?

[Jason P]

Mike,

PM me the details of your ebay buyer - he may be the same bloke that dicked me around when he bought my Ittok off me. Took a long while and the threat of further action to get him to pay, then PayPal kept the payment pending positive feedback - needless to say he wasn't forthcoming in that. Ended up circumventing PayPal's hold by refunding a penny, but a right royal PITA all the same...

Jason