What was your first Turntable

Not including the steel armed turntable with the stack of pennies on the arm to keep it from skipping while you were listening to Alvin and the Chipmunks.

After my Lloyds with the BSR turntable I first got a BIC 960 with an Empire cartridge, not a bad turntable at all, in fact I have picked one up at a garage sale and am using it hooked to my PC.

What was yours?

Jim

My first turntable was a Garrard AT-6 changer. I liked it (especially its dynamically balanced tonearm that allowed me to tilt the unit at about a 45 degree angle and still be able to play it!), but the rumble level was horrible. That was solved with the purchase of the AR turntable in 1964. The rest of the turntables I owned were:

TOTL Perpetuum Ebner (don't remember model #)
Garrard Zero-100
Dual 1229Q
BIC-980
Pioneer PL-55X
Technics SL-1200
Dual 721
Belt-driven Kenwood (Forgot model #)
Onkyo CP-1280F
Denon DP-62
and finally,
Dual CS-5000 - which blows away all the rest!

This post has been edited by emaidel on May 15, 2008 05:28 am

mine is what I am currently using right now, a denon dp62L, have had it since 1984. maybe early 85' funny thing is, I saved and saved to buy it, used my last dime, got it back to the barracks and spent an hour or so setting it up and I didnt know that I needed to buy a stylus, so I had to wait another month until I got enough money to buy one. I bought 2 audio technica at160ml's

elroy

My first turntable was a Yamaha PF-50 which died several years ago and was replaced with a Pro-Ject 1.2 turntable which I currently use. Hopefully the Pro-Ject will last as long as the Yamaha did for me which was over 20 years of faithful service.

Not exactly mine, but the first one I used on a regular basis was my father´s first TT, a Sansui SR-222 MK-I ( I think ) in 1972. In fact I gave it a lot more use than my father ever did.

Upon leaving Africa in 1974 and having left the stereo behind, my father bought a complete Philips system, which comprised a G-212 Turntable. Nice little TT.

I then left home to study in England in 1976, and whilst there I got "My own" first TT. It was a Connoiseur BD-1 which, at the time was the only respectable TT I could afford on my meagre allowance.

Next up was a gorgeous Kenwood KD-650 ( just like the one Bolly owns now ), bought in Saudi Arabia in 1981, followed shortly afterwards by A Linn LP-12 / Ittok / Asak combination.

I sold the Linn after getting married in 1985. I needed the money badly and Linns fetched really high prices in a very closed portuguese market ( prior to EEC days ).

One or two years later I bought an Ariston RD-80 with an Audio-Techica AT-1100 arm, which I kept for a few months only and then I gave up on vinyl in favour of the emerging CD format.

Took me about 10 years to realize my mistake and getting back to this format.

You guys know what I´m running now.

Jorge

Wow Jorge, you have had a lot of experiences in your life. I would venture to say you probably have a few stories you could share.


Jim

Nah, not really. I´ve only ever had just the one wife.

Had I had 5 like my brother-in-law has had, and that would have been experiences.

My first was a Dual 1009 changer. I had Duals up until 1979 when I bought a B&O 1700. Since then I've gotten back into TT's and have a couple I like.

My first was a Dual 1264, which I bought with my original and current Sansui system. It developed a hum/feedback problem at high volumes almost from the beginning, which I fought for years. I tried with the ground connected, unconnected, etc, but to no avail. Once the "hum" started, the only way to stop it was to completely turn the TT off, then start again.

One day I was listening to Roger's "Heard It Through The Grapevine" at about 11 o'clock on the dial when I stepped out into the garage to get something. The hum started, and before I could get back in the house to turn it down, it took out the woofers on my Canon 1215T speakers.

I didn't know any better at the time, and had a friend with an auto stereo business get me some "generic" replacement woofers, which sounded like ass. I was so mad I tossed the TT in the dumpster, and shortly after, the speakers. Needless to say, I know better now.

Every cloud has a silver lining, though. If I hadn't have tossed the Dual, I may have never acquired the Yorx, which now holds an appropriate position in my system.........

I'll discount the Voice of Music changer in the yard-sale console, as well as my parents' Westinghouse portable with a BSR Monarch changer that I grew up with (arm was so heavy, it destroyed polystyrene 45s after two plays).

I would guess then that my first truly high-fidelity turntable was a $30 second-hand Garrard AT60 with a $6 Astatic ceramic cart. It fed the V-M's tube amp and raw speakers (no enclosures!).

BSR mcdonald. it was a big table, but cheaply made. i think it was from the early 70s(styling) but the whole thing was made of plastic. I got it when i was about 10, and it was a good first table. IIRC, the cart/stylus was pretty nice actually.

I got rid of it though, along with the rest of my BPC. All of my BPC went to GW, the trash or the curb.

B*I*C basic.
Got it with the returned deposit for my tux for prom after my high school sweetheart dumped me a week before prom.
1975 for those of you keeping score at home.
I'm over it now. Was a plenty serviceable TT for years.
The funny part is I have no idea how I dispensed with it.

I do remember what happened to my BIC, I traded it in on a JVC Quartz locked table, I was back in where I traded it in at and they were cleaning it up for resale, Parker, the saleman, showed me some "foreign material from the dustcover being used for other purposes" he found in it, that is something you can't do with a cd player.

Jim

I do remeber that was an Onkyo radio/receiver (?!) with a TT on the top of it.
I still have it in the attic of my house in Salamanca-Spain. If can found it I will took some pics of it.
Tanx for the Topic Jim, sure it brings some fantastic memories to me.

My first real TT was a Dual CS 604. It was the first piece of my Killer system.
I soon bought a pair of JBL L166's, Sansui 9090db, and an Empire 2000Z cartridge.

After about 10 years it was the only piece that I had left from that first system.