Grateful Dead Music Forum

So I got a pretty decent cartridge and I installed it in my bottom of the line pioneer DD turntable I've had for 25 years.
Really diggin the vinyl. And the TT works just fine, but it doesn't jazz me up like the cart and the LPs did. Thinking I need a different one.
I've been monitoring ebay for a couple of weeks, and then googling the models that I find.
All kinds of shipping horror stories and maintanence nightmares.
And then I see a few that have been restored, by cleaning, re-belting, removing the old lubes and replacing with factory spec lubricants, new cart and stylus. These people detail how they are going to ship it with platter and tonearm wieght removed, dust cover removed and all individually packaged with in the same large box. Spoiled me for the bargain buys I initially thought I'd be scoring.
I now have inquiries out to an AR guy and a Dual guy, both who completely restore TTs. This hasn't been easy - you can't even find a new turntable on display in this town and no one reconditions.
Anyone else a fan of their old records and turntables?

I'm a big fan of vinyl and have a Techniques belt drive from early 80s still spinning with no problems---if I needed another TT I think I'd buy one new at BestBuy, etc. I'm sure you can still get one without too much trouble. I saw some the other day there fairly cheap.

I just threw my old TT away. It was finished. I gotta get me a good one. Not in the cards right now.
I got tons of vinyl. 350+ LP's. Mostly classic rock. Entire Zep, entire Floyd, Entire Beatles(not counting the old rarities $$$) Lotta JGB, Dead, Jazz, Zappa, Cheech and Chong, Carlin, On and On-Joni Mitchell, Santana, James Taylor, Guess Who, Chicago, you name it. Love Vinyl. with Headphones!!

I still got mine because I just know, some day LPs are coming back!

...but it doesn't jazz me up...

One quick question - is it plugged into a "phono" input on your pre-amp? If not, you might be missing the RIAA EQ that's part of that input.

Analog is alive and well! There are lots of very good turntables available these days, ranging in price from fairly reasonable to "more money than sense". A couple of manufacturers with TTs in the "reasonable" range are:

http://www.project-audio.com/
http://www.rega.co.uk/index2.htm

Will,
Hey you know your stuff! My reciever is a stereo dedicated one, one of the last I saw at the big 'box' stores, everything else is Home Theatre oriented, so yes, I have the phono input with the RIAA EQ . Maybe it's just aesthetics, cause it sounds fine, but I can't help thinking that the cheap plastic base and bottom of the line direct drive is probably contributing to a less than ideal reproduction. And mttourpro, those cheap ones that push usb archiving to mp3, like at Best Buy and in the guitar catalogs, are pretty crappy, that would be a step down from my pioneer. But I go back to when us kids would go to the stereo store and look at the Thorens, Linns, Duals, and ARs - the golden age of turntables!

[quote="Highballin'" Love Vinyl. with Headphones!![/quote]

Just add the bean bag chair and a bong.

Nothing better for getting the seeds than a double LP.