I feel very fortunate to have found this site full of Teac-Addicts.
This is my little collection.
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I see you have a TEAC UD-H01. I love mine.
I remember when these types of products first came out in the late 1970's. They were a hard sell then, and it hasn't changed much. Technics had some very nice stuff then, but about the only thing that anyone today might recognize is the compact automatic linear tracking turntables with P-mount cartridges that were part of the line.
Hi,
I came across this thread a while ago trawling through the internet trying to decide what vintage kit to buy....suffice to say I now have a much loved 500 reference set up....i just need one more piece of kit to satisfy my craving....a turntable....
So could someone advise me what would be my best bet to match my existing equipment???
Thanks...
Lee.
Soo .. the ideal turntable is a used Technics SP-10 (not to be confused with the
other SP-10, which was their top of the line model).
About 13" square, very slightly bigger than an LP record cover. There are two issues. One, make sure you are buying a working model. Some un-educated sellers on eBay think the one they are selling doesn't work because they automatically sense the record size, and if you don't put a record in the thing, it won't work. So, maybe a bargain for a "for parts only" sale that has nothing wrong with it.
On the other hand, the linear tracking arm can have problems, usually due to the belt that drives the arm being too old, dried up, or otherwise non-functional. So definitely PM a seller and see what you can learn.
The killer is the need for P-mount cartridges, which aren't offered by many manufacturers any longer, but it's not all bad news. Stay away from the low-end Audio-Technicas. Technics did offer some excellent cartridges but you will have to shop eBay to buy one now, and cartridges, especially used cartridges, are a dicey proposition.
There are current production Grado models that range from decent to near top of their line. And the ultimate is the P-mount version of the Blue Point Special Moving Coil, which is a really great cartridge and although not expensive by Moving Coil standards, is still more than a couple copies of Benjamin Franklin's portrait, plus the need for a MC step-up device (active or transformer).
Now for the good news ... the way these 'tables work, is you lift the lid, place the album on the platter, and close the lid. Not only are they fully automatic, but you never touch the tonearm in use. Even cuing up a different track is done with the lid closed and via buttons on the front.
Because the tonearm/cartridge can't really be accessed in normal use, and is never manually cued, ham-fisted idiots probably haven't damaged the cartridge that is in it. Now, a determined idiot can still reach in there and with some effort, do his typical destruction. But in normal use there is no way to actually touch the tonearm. So, unlike many vintage turntables, you might not have to buy a cartridge at all.
Good working models are still available in the used market, and they are not terribly expensive as turntables go. Maybe $200, and I've seen them go for less.
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Compact systems of quality are still a hard sell here.
Reasons? There is a dis-connect between the product and the price tags. The market is so full of low-fi products that look similar that people expect to see a $100 or maybe at most $200 price tag.
To overcome that, the manufacturer has to really make an effort on cosmetics and control "feel" which adds costs, so that they seem expensive when compared to conventional sized components with the same spec sheet.
It takes an educated consumer and on top of that, one who cares about appearance and fit into a decor, which is not describing the average HiFi buyer in North America. So selection and availability suffers ... distributors don't want to bring in much of the available product mix, for fear of sitting on old unsold inventory. The manufacturer doesn't want to spend the extra dollars to meet North American compliance testing at five figures a model on too many models in the Japanese / European catalog.
And now we have the 21st century buyer who seems to have effectively skipped the mid-sized components and gone straight to the *really* compact stuff. Ironically, these items are
too big today for many consumers.
It's a combination of factors that tend to result in a circular argument against more models in the CDM and USDMarkets.
Still, to the right person, they are the perfect answer. Good thread.
