Fairly cheap but decent quality… I'm currently looking at the Project Genie and Debut III, anything else I should be considering? Second hand is a possibility, and the cheaper the better really…

**edit** USB would be useful but by no means essential

rega SH

what do you consider fairly cheap? £2-300? Project get a good press, also consider rega p3.

You may need to budget for a phono stage if your amp doesn't have one.

Frankly if it were my money I'd get an second hand SL1200 / SL1210.

For the price of a basic deck from Project or Rega you get a battleship built deck (in comparison) that sounds pretty much as good with the right cartridge and offers a wide range of useful features.

You'll need to factor in the cost of a Phono stage and a Cartridge.

Yeah, round about £2-300, but the nearer £200 the better, really. Phono stage is no issue as the amp it'll be going into has phono inputs. Found a brand new Project Debut III USB on eBay which is making my buy it now finger twitchy…

Going to have a look at Rega stuff now.

**edit** used 1210s when I used to DJ as a youngun, was never *that* impressed with the quality through a hifi amp / phones, and I've no need for frippery like direct drive or pitch control 😉

For genuine quality on a budget go for stuff like Pioneer's 1970's-era mass-produced offerings. PL12Ds or PL112Ds can be found for around £50 and are superior to many more expensive players built after them.

EDIT pardon me, missed the point that these were for DJ. Thought it was for home hi-fi.

Most DJ's used Stanton catridges with the SL which to be frank kills the sound stone dead.

I have a clearaudio deck that cost several thousand pounds and tried it against an SL on my system using the same carridge. I thought the SL sounded excellent for the price.

But you could go the default route of a Rega Planar 3 which is what most people do personally I think the SL is a much better sounding deck.

technics sl is a tool and not for home hi fi..
rega is not nearly as good as the project in this price range

I've got a Rega P3 that I'm thinking of selling. Drop me an email if you're interested.

Fair point, I think all the 1210s I used had Stantons in them.

There's a Rega P3 on eBay just down the road from me, but those Pioneers look very tempting – I could kind of do with two, so I may pick one of those up and see how it fares.

"used 1210s when I used to DJ as a youngun, was never *that* impressed with the quality through a hifi amp / phones, and I've no need for frippery like direct drive or pitch control "

And quite right too, if you're a jobbing dj, they're a damn good choice,spin up speed is great, indestructible, however for home listening, pretty awful, through almost any amp you can hear the motor churning away through the dd, and the standard non fluid damped tonearm is pretty poor by rega/project standards.

Second hand ones generally will either have been trashed by bedroom djs and will have had Stanton/ortofon cartridges fitted badly trashing the arm,used by jobbing djs and battered but functional, or will have been really well looked after and still cost a fortune.

For genuine quality on a budget go for stuff like Pioneer's 1970's-era mass-produced offerings. PL12Ds or PL112Ds

I'm pretty sure I've got a (secondhand) PL12D. Are you saying I wouldn't see any real improvement by getting something like a Project Essential or Genie III? I'll put me wallet back if so…

Funny I listened to an SL via a lavardin IT and martin logans and it was silent mechanically.

What do I know eh.. Much better off spending your cash on a deck with a cheap bearing MDF or Glass platter and a motor you can buy for a fiver..

Jap crap eh…

The only time I've noticed a 1210 sounding rubbish is when they were using rubbish needles or a rubbish mixer or rubbish mastering.

If I had the money, I would go for a transcriptor, some look like works of art and they are definately a showcase bit of kit.

A 1210 is actually not a bad deck at all if you put a nice arm and cartridge on there. I'd avoid dj cartridges all together. They're designed to track through an earthquake but sound pretty dead and terrible.

Ended up with a Debut III USB off eBay, will report back when it arrives!

How about one of these:

Or perhaps:

Not sure how much the second one is, I think in the region of £30k. The VPI is a bargain at £11k.

Technics SL1200/1210.
I've had Linn, and Rega as well as numerous Japanese belt and Direct drive TT and all sound unstable compared to the SL1200.
It is rock solid, stable and well isolated.

I had a Rega Planar 3 for about 15 years. It was great so I'd recommend one of those.

Simplicity at its engineered best.

I miss my Garrard 301 🙁

You can have my Dual 505 for £65 shipped UK. a classic. No USB sorry.

bikenady61@gmail.com

As others have said. If you want to chuck records around and enjoy electronica and rock a 1200/1210 is hard to beat but if you want a little more midband detail/finesse at the expense of usability go for a Rega or ideally a used Michell Syncro or Mycro.

Also if you go down the Rega route I'd recommend their cartridges for fuss free VTA etc but stick with the Bias 2 as the Elys sounds strange IMO.

1210's

sold mine to buy GF a kona kula. She loves the bike but thinks I'm stupid for selling them.

She's right of course.

If anybody is interested in a second hand set of markIII 1210s if have a set for sale?????