Low Budget Vinyl Source - Page 9

score. well done. you should also replace the stylus though as you have no way of knowing what kind of condition the one on there is in, and a worn stylus will cause irreparable damage to your records.
Again LPgear carry the replacment AT112 stylus and even have an "S" version, which stands for Shibata, which is a very high quality stylus profile. A new cart with a stylus like this today even from AT, which are usually very good value, is well over 100USD.

Any of them. that was sort of the point

Well done. As a rule you should always change the stylus on a 2nd hand deck of unknown provenance as Nightowl says. It may not be necessary to change the whole cartridge but generally these days repalcement stylii for vintage carts are expensive and it's often cheaper to just get a whole new cartridge.

Yes well spotted I should put these Harman Kardon ones in there. I checked a Hi-Fi Choice review from 1985 and they seemed slightly underwhelmed by this range from HK at the time so I didn't put them in when I originally compiled the list.

They basically said that the T35 wasn't as good as a Dual CS-505 or Rega Planar 2, so was a little dated sounding by 1985 as these were the ones to beat then at the price level, however they said it sounded more like a '70s deck like a Pioneer PL12D or Sansui SR222 so by no means a bad player at all in the scheme of things.

My guess is these HK decks were overpriced in the UK and the then weakness of the UKP vs USD inflated their price beyond the market level they were aimed at in the USA. Still a Rega P2 or Dual 505 are 500USD today so not a bad result at all.

Their main criticism of the T35 was that it was poorly isolated from acoustic feedback so you will definitely need to put it on a good solid surface away from any other equipment and also changing the feet for something more modern like sorbothane pods would be a good tweak.
Removing the lid whilst playing records will also help and getting a better quality modern platter mat made of silicone, or something similar will also be a good upgrade. Herbie's Way mats are perfect if a little pricey for a deck like this.

They liked the tonearm and praised the engineering and accuracy which is good since this is the achilles heal of most turntables of a certain age. It's mass is on the lower side of medium at 9gms but should work well with modern carts. My recommendation would be an Audio Technica cart like the AT95 which will add a bit of vim into the sound which they characterised as being a bit laid back and soft.

The T55 is the best of the bunch, if you ever come accross one, with an arm designed by the famous Japanese desinger Ito who built the Linn Ittok arm, one of the highest regarded of that period. This deck was way overpriced in the UK so didn't get that much praise from the press either but again would be a baragin if you can find one for around 100USD today.

That's a direct drive linear tracker from the late '80s as far as I know. It's a lot more complex than the simple belt drive Radioshack / Realistic model from the '70s that I mentioned at the beginning.
Build quality for these kind of highly automated decks, even the high end Technics or Bang And Olufsen ones, was uniformly poor by that time so I'd steer clear.

My advice would be to look for something simpler and closer to home on Craigs List, so you can go and pick it up in person, and see it working before putting your hand in your pocket.

Pioneer generally had a better reputation than Marantz for turntables but I don't know the model you mention at all. Are you sure you have the number right? If it's a black later '80s model then I'd probably avoid it. You can find out about most of their range here Pioneer Owners Manuals, Service Manuals, Schematics, Free Download | Vinyl Engine and Marantz is also figured on there.

I've had a 6170 and the price you are quoting is about right. It's a good starter deck, upto the standard of a basic Denon or Technics direct drive, and you can put a Shure M-97 or Audio Technica AT95E cart on it and should work fine with your Akai.

In the long run you want to look at getting a separate phono stage like a Cambridge Audio 540/640P as I'd imagine the one in the Akai is pretty perfunctory. Akai were really a tape specialist then and the rest of their kit never really set the world alight.