• HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    Beautiful but a nightmare to keep running.

    It uses a nonstandard needle cartridge where replacements can cost hundreds; conversely other quality turntables tend to use a standard cartridge that can be replaced for anywhere from $10-20 to the moon.

    As with a lot of consumer grade hi-fi, late 70s/early 80s turntables are the sweet spot: older ones tend to use less standard cartridge mounts, idler drive designs that can deform, and complex changer mechanisms that are no longer widely used. By the late 80s, the quality is plummeting as the turntable is just a pack-in item for a system devoted to tape and/or CD; you see a lot of flimsy kit, linear tracking designs with new failure modes, and custom (100% bad idea) or P-mount cartridges (good idea, but comparatively few choices in 2024)