[steelglam]

Anyone have any thoughts on the Pionner PL-12D turntable? I've got a friend of a friend that's looking to get rid of one for $25, and it's in good condition. I've always had direct-drive turntables, but is this a decent belt driven one? I think it was a relatively inexpensive model back in the day, but I'm not sure about that, nor am I sure about it's quality. Is it worth $25?

 

[nick_charles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by steelglam /img/forum/go_quote.gif Anyone have any thoughts on the Pionner PL-12D turntable? I've got a friend of a friend that's looking to get rid of one for $25, and it's in good condition. I've always had direct-drive turntables, but is this a decent belt driven one? I think it was a relatively inexpensive model back in the day, but I'm not sure about that, nor am I sure about it's quality. Is it worth $25?

The PL-12D is a budget classic and was very popular and highly regarded back in the 1970s for what it was, I never owned one myself having a Garrard first and later a Transcriptors. Having said that, by any rational technical criteria it is really not terribly good, it is noisy and the speed stability is poor (~1%) , the Mk II is marginally better, but apart from nostalgia value I would not bother if you already have a competent TT.

 

[memepool]

It's a great starter deck and if you want a turntable I wouldn't hesitate. A total gift if you can snag one for 25 USD certainly. The tonearm is fairly high mass by modern standards but fit it with a Denon DL110 or Audio Technica AT440 and it'll really make music for you.
It's a much safer bet than a DD from this period in many ways as there is'nt much that can really go wrong with it. Change the oil and buy a new belt and you're away basically.

It's going to be the equal of anything you'll buy new today for upto 500USD anyway....

 

[Orcin]

The Pioneer PL-12D was sold in starter systems back in the day. A reasonable turntable... but at the very bottom of the food chain for belt drives. It is no where near a Thorens or even Acoustic Research. But yeah, for $25 in working condition, it's a good deal.

 

[fzman]

It's going to be the equal of anything you'll buy new today for upto 500USD anyway....[/QUOTE]

i doubt this very much. i owned a pl-12d as part of my first real stereo. it was a $99 mass-produced table that looked ok, but will not compete with a good current table (of course you can;t buy one of those for $25.

by the time you;re done refurbing it with a cartridge and belt, you may be better served looking at a project debut 3, or a well regarded used vintage thorens.

just my 2cents!

 

[tubes]

I picked one up for $10 in a consignment shop, I didn't need it, I had much better decks but for $10 it's good to have a third string deck just in case. No it's not very good but if it works good $25.00 is the most I would pay, on the other hand you can do a lot better if you are serious about getting into vinyl and I would not start dumping money into it. This is almost a case of you get what you pay for. Honestly, you may be better off paying a little more for a better deck off of craigslist, I came across a Technics SL-1600 table listed on my areas craigslist, the SL-1600 is a much better table in my opinion. Good luck.

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fzman /img/forum/go_quote.gif I doubt this very much. i owned a pl-12d as part of my first real stereo. it was a $99 mass-produced table that looked ok, but will not compete with a good current table (of course you can;t buy one of those for $25. by the time you;re done refurbing it with a cartridge and belt, you may be better served looking at a project debut 3, or a well regarded used vintage thorens.

Well 99USD was a lot more money back then than it is today of course if you remember

. In the UK this table cost 55 quid in the late 1970s when a Rega P(lannar) 3 cost 80 so that would make it about the 500 mark today.

Modern belt drives like the Rega P1 or Project Debut are better in many respects for sure, having a better designed arm for starters but they are definitely not even twice as good never mind 20x as good.

Vintage Thorens decks are in a different class but you'll be lucky to find one of these for pin money these days and the same goes for Technics.

Renovations shouldn't cost much either. A belt is 10USD and you can use engine oil or light machine oil which is something you'll most probably have lying around anyway. It's mostly elbow grease and some careful set up to get the best out of a deck like this.

Stuff like stylii are more expensive but these are things you have to buy with any kind of 2nd hand turntable and obviously can keep as you progress up the vinyl ladder.

If you already have better decks then yes it's not exactly a collectible but for a beginner it's a great buy and for the price of a few CD's and a bit of effort will give you access to vast amounts of baragin basement vinyl...

I'd call that a no brainer...