Just ordered my new turntable. AT LP 120.

I have LP's but nothing to play them on.

Some places wanted as much as $500.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002S1CJ2Q/ref=asc_df_B002S1CJ2Q2073776?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B002S1CJ2Q&hvpos=1o3&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=179775871966614718&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=

Technics units from the 1970s, which were extremely reliable. Good choice, I think.

This was just installed by the designer in my listening room for review (At $30K for the table alone, it costs more than I make in a year, but that's the nice thing about being a hifi reviewer - access to the toybox ). A night of preliminary listening tells me it may be the best table in the world even though there are tables that cost five times more.

The Kronos Turntable:

So, do you get to keep that?

And thanks for all of your kind guidance.

be "able to work something out." Designers and manufacturers love it when a fairly high-profile reviewer selects one of their products as a long term reference. It gets mentioned in subsequent reviews and in the "associated equipment" section at the end of the text and they can say "Noted writer X chooses the Cosmic Kaboom as his personal reference" in ads and promo material.

I've been doing this for fifteen years, so I am very well known in the High End community.

The first editor I ever worked for in the High End press, Harry Pearson (founder of The Absolute Sound, though it's no longer under his control) has always had a set-up man to handle the grunt work/maintenance/heavy lifting for the three systems he maintains in his palatial Edwardian home on Long Island.

I must admit I wouldn't be anywhere near as difficult to work for as my mentor HP.

Not top-of-the-line, looks something like the pic in the O.P. (not like that Kronos behemoth!). I've been using it to convert a bunch of vinyl to CD's (and then to iPod fodder).

I found the Technics at a garage sale after my low-end Garrard finally croaked.

There's just something nice about starting the iPod and hearing a needle hit the vinyl, search out the groove, and then the snaps and cracks from an old Stones album.

I know it is obsolete technology but I expected things would have still progressed. I don't expect the same from 8-track players because the tapes wear out faster than the machines. LaserDiscs are still great.

didn't want/need so I may remove it. Another negative is no ground. For the bucks though....

I still have my Laser Disc hooked up but haven't used it in years.

Belt drive may be regular for audiophile situations (my turntable which my dad "borrowed" when I moved is belt drive), but much worse for fast starts, beat-matching, scratching and other things that DJs do with turntables.

I just found out this year that Technics doesn't make the 1200 anymore, which really surprises me. That was the industry standard for SO long.

They may be held together by wire and duct tape now, but I've had my AT headphones for something like 13 years, and they still work.