So my 30 year old player that I’ve just been upgrading the cartridge on has unfortunately died. Are there any record player enthusiasts here with some advice? No built in anything please.
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I’m not much of an enthusiast, but I’ve been liking the Denon DP-300F. It’s got play and stop buttons with an auto return at the end of the record, and there’s a switch under it to turn off the built-in phono pre if you’ve got your own.
Good luck!
@German_Power seems to be the local aficionado and has been very knowledgeable in making recommendations considering budget and compatibility.
What table are you coming from, what features are you looking for, and what’s your budget? Assume you are looking at getting a new turntable as opposed to fixing the old? Sometimes if able to fix, the vintage tables are still quite good, and may exceed what you can currently get at a certain budget.
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It’s an old 80s Technics I picked up second hand years ago for $100 and stuck a $100 Ortofon cartridge on it. I figure the effort and price to repair could be better applied to a new unit.
Looking around $500 and running it off my 600ne.
Some of those Technics were great…what model?
I run a vintage Realistic Lab 400 with a cheap AT cart through a Pro-ject Phono Box DS2 USB. Got sidetracked upgrading desktop/digital gear and headphones before finishing upgrading to a better cartridge and still haven’t gotten around to it.
I hear good things about U-turn Orbit, Project Debut Carbon, Fluance RT-8X as good options with absent/defeatable phono stages in the <$500 range.
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@FiCurious thanks for the praise, I am more familiar with the European market.
Old technics are really good and easy to fix. You can also quickly turn 2 broken ones into a good one. There are also many upgrades for the old players. A used turntable will always be able to offer you more in this price range.
Which TT model do you have exactly?
Which chartridge do you have? With Ortofon you can often upgrade the diamond.
How did your previous cartridge behave on the PMA-600NE? (Volume compared to other sources, distortion, sound)
Can you solder? Would you be ready to tinker with the TT?
Or would you prefer a plug in play solution?
Same here. They come with the ortofon red or blue I can’t remember. I am part of a group of vinyl enthusiasts and many use these tables. I am using a 1978 pioneer pl-518 with a Nagaoka 110 cartridge with I upgraded from the 80’s radio shack cartridge. I am happy with the Nagaoka.
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Fluance rt85 is really nice and comes with a nice ortofon 2m blue cart. No bells and whistles just belt driven and well built.
Had mine a few years now with no issues. Really easy to set up as well.
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these old pioneers are really good, good choices
The 2M Blue is a really good cartridge. But it is also very demanding on the preamp and the tonearm.
In my opinion, the Fluance rt85 is a good example of why a good cartridge cannot save a bad turntable. It’s really worth investing in a decent turntable. I recently had to mount a 2M Blue on a SL-1200GR to prove to a customer that his cartridge is not his problem.
I would recommend sticking to the $ 100 range with the cartridge.
It’s an SL-23 with a 2M red. I have it paired with the 600ne and a pair of 600m so the volume stays quite low.
I have no ability to solder and have zero experience with repairing. I did remove the plate and found that it’s something going on with motor. Me doing this apparently got the plate to spin again for a couple days with no issue. The days to follow it would spin up then slowly wind down then back up the back down lol. Now, and for the past couple weeks, it just spins an inch and stops when I engage the arm.
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It’s an SL-23. I’ve read good things about those units as well. I’m also considering the AT-LP5 or maybe the LPW50PB and reuse my 2M red.
Rega Planar 2 or for more 
the 3…solid and have always been 
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Ouch, harsh words lol I guess I should stop recommending it then. I don’t have anything to compare it to except a couple older technics models with which I had pretty bad luck. So I went looking for a new tt and the rt85 has worked out really well for me so far.
Also unfortunate, as it’s a really nice looking table…
Inherited the pioneer from my dad, so lucky me. He bought new so even better.
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Not sure why it’s a bad turntable tbh. Solid heavy plinth, acrylic platter, solid motor and spindle design, good cartridge. I think there’s lots of value in it.
I’ve kinda eyed it as a possible upgrade at some point myself for many of those reasons.
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Are there going to be way more recs for a full/complete solution under $1k?
you can customize it to have a grado black, ortofon OM5e, or red or black…
if you are paying up to 500 bucks the debut carbon is probably the most trustworthy source when it comes to it as its well respected but not fully audiophile overpriced like say the rega planar 1 (better sound but with a basic setup and only sounding better because tonearm)… but the Uturn is also a really good option but it has issues like no adjustable antiskate
so you want a phono preamp, an amp, and speakers?
phono preamp is easy… buy a schiit mani for 100 bucks… now for speakers that is not my expertise… i hear for an amplifier for it the emotiva bass-X A100 is just the perfect deal, if you want headphones either the darkvoice/littledot tube amp for high impedance headphones or a schiit magni/JDS labs atom/Liquid spark for lower impedance stuff like planars, but i know absolutely nothing about speakers so just figure out what you would like in your budget range (bookshelf or floorstanding. what stands do you wanna use because speakers need to be on stand or else vibrations, etc)