Record Mats & Clamps etc.. Note that there are 2 different varieties of mats, one is the isolation mat that is used by LP fans to get a better performance out of their turntable and then there is the slipmat that is used by DJ's to control the record, slipmats are useless in a hi-fi setting and vice versa Harmonix Makes the TU-800 mat and TU-812 clamp, at only 1 mm the mat is compatiable with a fairly wide range of turntable/arm combinations Living Voice Makes a turntable isolation mat that many swear by Ringmat Developments Has a variety of isolation mats for HiFi usage Pickering DJ Slipmats Stanton Magnetics Has a variety of slipmats for DJ usage Herbie's Audio Lab Makes the WET styrofoam based isolation mat Living Voice Make the Mystic Mat, an sandwich of sundry materials such as carbon fibre and polyurethane, very good, only 3mm high and comes with a quality clamp as well but a tad expencive Technical Info. German article on the theory of RIAA EQ Theory Has a few old (but very good) technical papers on turntable, arm and cart theory. Tweaking your record player A very good article from Stereophile. Understanding The Issues Behind Cartridge Alignment Cartridge Alignment Why Ortofon and Why moving Coil ? This article is a bit out of date, but it touches on some of the issues regarding pickups that come up from time to time esp. here in England, there is always the chant "MM is technically better" to be heard from the monster raving loony linn/naim crowd. The Universal Stylus Not strictly a technical article but a fascinating read DIY Build a ring platter Info from the Athens Audio Club on how to construct a platter ring for a heavy platter turntable (10+ kilo's). Hi-Fi John Low tech DIY turntable page, interesting projects but no detailed schematics Sundry Links Why Vinyl ? Analogue Audio Association German group commited to the LP format Grammofon.info (Norwegian) Nice page in Norwegian with sundry but useful information on it Record cutters Fostex Makes a damn good record cutter that has a tangential cutter and a normal arm for playback Kingston Dubcut Interesting new cutter that uses a common Technics SP-1200 as a lathe to keep the price down Record cutting page Nice page centred on old home/semi-pro record cutters such as the original Rek-O-Kut. Vinylium Interesting page on cutters by the man that handles the official service for Neumann lathes Presto The Presto company made portable and studio cutters from the 40's into the 60's Wilcox-Gay This company made cutters for home use like this Recordio Junior from the late 40's into the late 50's, those are probably the most common that you can find on the second hand market, but they also made the Coin Recordio an automatic coin operated cutter that was installed in many stores, one collector has a number of disk labels archived here Mailing lists & Forums Vinyl Rules OK ? Vinyl Lebt German language mailing list Labels/Markers NB Services (US) Please send any factual corrections, dead links, information and/or links that you feel that should be on this page to the page maintainer but please note that I do not have an Internet access at the moment so there may be some time before I can answer.
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Currently active record player manufacturers. R to Z
Radio Shack
The US arm of the company sells the Fully Automatic Belt-Drive Turntable w/Pre-Amp which has to be one of the catchier names that has been given to a turntable, the Canadian branches however sell their own branded Optimus Lab 1100 budget auto with a built in phono preamp.
Rauna
Makes the Continuo and Continuo Reference Granite decks, those are mid/high end suspended tables that use the company's own Cantus tangential tonearm, .
RCA
Makes one of those budget players with a built in preamp intended for use with a Mini sytem, no info on the RCA site but Radio Shack lists it in their catalogue.
RCA (Music systems) See --> Polyconcept USA Turntables
Redpoint
One of the offshots of the Teres project (see below), intend (or are, this is a bit unclear) an improved version of the Teres for commercial release.
Rega
Makes the well known and generally well regarded P line of turntables (formerly known as Planar), including the budget P2 in a recently upgraded version called P2/2000, it comes with the company's RB 250 tonearm as standard. The P3 is also in an upgraded version called P3 MkII, wich represents an very good price/performance ratio especially in the UK and comes with the RB 300 tonearm. The P 9 is their top of the line turntable and was updated in 2002 with structural enhancements and sports a new look more in line with the rest of the Rega hi-fi range, it also has an upgraded arm in the form of the new RB 1000 arm. Finally the company makes the Planar 78 for the vintage enthuaist, it's a (it only plays 78's). Unusually for modern british decks none of players from Rega are suspended designs.
Rek-O-Kut See --> Esosteric Sound's Rek-o-Kut Turntables
Reloop
Has a wide range of DJ turntables, mid to high end under their own name and budget versions under the Jaytec brand.
Rockport Technologies
US based maker of ultra high end tables such as Sirius System 3, that deck has been reviewed by Stereophile.
Roksan
Manufactures the high end Touraj Moghaddam Signature turntable and the slighly more afforable Xerex X (10).
Sanibel Sound
Manufacture a high end turntable called Ameca 2.
Sati
Makes the ultra high end Ultimate Transference deck.
Scheu
This company pioneered the idea of a high end turnable sold as kit, this meant great savings, the possibility to compleatly customised deck and also to start out with relatively cheap components and then upgrade the deck to a better specification at a later date. VBut have more strated to sell their decks as finished products, namely the Quadrant an deck with a string driven heavy acrylic platter and is usually shipped with the company's own arm, the Black Beauty is a cheaper deck that has a slightly thinner platter and is usually shipped armless, the White Beauty is a variant of that deck that has a platter made out of clear acrylic rathar then black. The company offers 3 full kits called Beton, Holz and Granite but you can also buy any of the components seperatly and add to your own design or mix'n'match a table from a blend of those 3 variations, they have a page showing some examples of just that. And the prices are cery resonable. Note that these are sold in the US as Eurokits.
Sherwood
The company has a couple of automatic home decks for sale in Europe but no info on their homepage.
Simon Yorke Design
Makes a archival turntable that is designed more like an EMT or Telefunken broadcast turntable than an archival one. Expencive. Apparently also has a more conventional ones available, more info on his homepage.
Simply Black
Manufactures two mid/high end turntables, the Model 330 and the Classic.
SME ltd.
Manufacture a series of high end turntables, the Model 10 is their "budget" turntable at around £ 3000 with a simplified version of the Series V arm (only available with this turntable), this is a suspended design like their more expencive models and indeed it uses many of the parts that the 20 uses but it does not have the massive (and visually attractive) suspension structure, hence the much lower price. The model 10 has been getting rave reviews, here is Stereophile's take on the turntable. The Model 20/2 is a suspended design with 32 O-rings and a heavy platter, it's construction is much more complicated than the 10 and thus much more costly. The top of the line turntable from SME ltd. is the Model 30, it built similarly to the 20 but with "more of everything", 48 O-rings, a heavy platter and even the motor wheighs in at 2.5 kilos (The turntable in total is 42 kilos). At the time of it's introduction the 30/2 was considered by many to be the best turntable of all time, although lately it has been facing stiff competition from new "massive platter" designs like the Clearaudio Turntables, Gabriel and Stabi XL Kuzma Turntables.
SOTA
This US based manufacturer has a bit of an odd reputation in the business, while no-one questions the capabilites of the decks they make, they do look a bit "rough" or unfinished (as in "did you build this yourself ?"), this has hampered their reputation somwhat esp. in Europe and furthermore getting information from the company can be a bit difficult while their service can be quite good, esp when it comes to upgrades. Newertheless SOTA has no fewer that 10 models to choose from, their top of the range model is the Millenia, a fairly heavy system with an independent motor and a vacum system, the Star Shappire is a more traditional sping suspended system that also features a vacum system, and the Shappire is the same deck without an vacum.
Sound By Design
Makes a high end 4 point suspended design called Quasar that sports an external motor, base and suspension made out of solid brass and an acrylic platter, it's made in 4 variations, the first is the Quasar 2T a variaton that has 2 sliders so It can accept 2 tonearms, the Chrome Gold that has crome plated base, the Limited Edition which sits on a coloured glass plate for a pleasing apperance and then there is the Signature Gold. Interestingly the plinth is a sliding acrylic board so the Quasar will accept any size of arm.
Sony
Still has a few turntables in it's catalogue even if it is not the force it was in turntable manufacturing that it was a cople of decades back. The PS-LX250H is an budget midi automatic belt driven model and is absoluetly typical for such a model with a built in RIAA preamp and so on, more info here (USA) or here (UK), the company also sells an even cheaper Midi deck in Europe called the PS-J20, this appears to be basically the same unit as the Bush MT-T1 and as such is an exellent buy at a low enough price, info here. The PS-LX350H is a bit odd however, it's essentially a low budget belt driven DJ turntable that is sold as a home deck, as with other DJ decks it is a fully manual unit that sports a pitch control and comes with an S-shaped arm with a detachable headshell in addition to the usual, the price of the LX350H has also been lowered during the last couple of years making the unit more competirive, more info if you want it.
Special Audio Components (SAC)
Makes the Girati Grande a huge high end deck that can support 2 tonearms.
SPJ
Makes the La Luce and Centoventi turntables, these are reference class decks designed by Judith Spotheim-Koreneef, one of the few female high end designers. The clear acrylic platter has steel wheights inserted into it to make it heavier, not only does this work well on the sound of the table it also makes it look like a space age sculpture.
Stanton Magnetics
Make the Stingray DJ turntable.
Symphonic Line
Has one high end turntable.
Systemdeck See --> Audio Note Turntables
T+A
While this company is not traditionally a turntable manufacturer it is a long standing manufacturer of high en analogue audio and decided to celebrate their 25th annaversary in November 2004 by introducing a new turntable that they call G 10. This is in some respects an unortodox design but very successful as such, while technically a fairly ordinary design with a suspended chassis and a synchronus AC motor the company has used a couple of uniqe technical solutions to solve some of the problems inherent in such a design as for instance to condition the AC electricity in real time using DSP's which is a novel solution to say the least. There are 2 basic variations of the player available, the G 10 R is supplied with a Rega sourced tonearm (this appers to be a model somwhere in between the 300 and the 600) and a Benz Micro C5 high output moving coil pickup while the more upmarket G 10 S is suplyed with a Benz C10 low output moving coil and a SME ltd. arm, additionally the player can be had with a built in RIAA preamplifier.
TEAC
Makes 2 tables, both belt driven and fully automatic P-A688 a deck that is intended to mate with their Mini and Midi system and has a built in RIAA preamp, and the P-988 a more traditional Japanese budget deck. Apart from those 2 TEAC is one of the last company that makes integrated systems that feature turntables, their Nostaglia line is designed to look like an old time radio sets, visually some of them are not a sucess, but 2 of those models have interestingly enough a triple speed turntable built in that supports the playback of 78'rpm records.
Technics
Makes some of the best selling turntables in the world, their 2 budget automatic belt diven turntables, the SL-BD20D and the upgraded SL-BD22 are probably the most widely available decks on the market, those 2 tables also have an excellent reputation for reliability and are for that reason popular amongst small manufacturers that modify decks for use with 16 & 78 rpm shellac, they do not have as glowing reputation for sound quality however. The company also manufacturers the ever popular SP-1200 deck in 3 version the standard Mk II, the Mk II PK and the 1200 M3D variant, while this is a rock solid deck ideally suited for it's purpose it's not reccommended for home use. Nevertherless the model is wildly popular in it's market sector and there are 2 mailing lists dedicated to the model, the 1200s list and the Backspin List.
Teres
Has produced a DIY high end turntable design and is working on a kit version of it.
Transrotor
Makes high end decks, ususually broad range for a maker of this type, sadly their homepage is undeveloped but one of their dealers has a good page outlineing their models. If your German is not all that hot I'll give a short description here. The Leonardo 25 is the cheapest model from the company and has a clear acrylic platter, it's normally shipped with a modified Rega RB 250 arm that the company calls RB 2.5 but you can get it without an arm. Next up is the Super Seven also available in a version with a heavy acrylic platter called simply Super Seven High End the sevens are not usually sold with a arm but come with a base plate drilled for SME, next is the Nero S and the Galileo 40 that are normally also shipped with the RB 2.5 arm they have a black platter made out of a a composite of carbon fibre and acrylic, the Rhondo II is next in line and is usually shipped without an arm and features a more convetional acrylic platter. The Sirius is a nice looking compact turntable with a chassi and platter made out of polished aluminium. The Pianta S 60 can accomedate 2 tonearms and you can get a higher (and heavier) platter for that model along with a extra motor and a longer tonarm board that will allow you to have a 9" and a 12" tonearm, you can also buy the deck with the longer board as the Pianta SL80. Fat Bob is a model witha a base and platter made out of polished aluminium that can take upto 3 tonearms and can be bought with 1 or 2 motors.
J. C. Verdier
French maker that makes a stunning magnetically levitated high end turntable.
Vestax
This manufacturer makes a line of DJ turntables that are known for their superior tracking ability rather than out and out sound quality, this quality means that they are often seen in a brodcast enviroment. They also have a model or 2 of turntables intended for home use, best selling of those is the BDT-2000 a good looking deck with a built in RIAA preamp and the tracking ability of a DJ deck. Those of you that work on the archival of 78rpm's shuld note that Vestax has a model available with the unusually high variable speed ratio of 50% that gives you the ability to go upto 98 rpm's and is ideal for those pre 1920's shellacs. But the most stunning product from the company is the VRX-2000 an instant record CUTTER! So you can make your own LP's at long last and thumb your nose at those Compact Disk Recordable owners while you are at it.
VPI Industries
Makes a range of mid to high end turntables, their lowest priced model is the HW19 MkIV you can read a review of an earlier incarnation of it here.
Vyger
Italian manufacturer of high end turntables, their "Indian Signature" model is reviewed here.
Walker Audio
Makes the Proscenium turntable, one of those high end tables that is based around an air bearing like the Forsell, also sells a precision replacement motor for other turntables.
Well Tempered Labs
Makes a high end turntable called simply The Record Player and even more expencive variants of it called Classic and the Reference, if I understand this correctly the tables are usually shipped with arms from the company bearing the same name as the decks.
Wilson Benesch
Makes 2 well regarded turntables, the upmarket ultralight Circle and the more traditional Wilson.
Wurlitzer
This company still makes a couple of jukeboxes that can play 45 rpm 7" records, don't look at me like this ... they are technically record players even if a bit spesialised.
Zarathustra
Make the S4 and S5 models, these are somewhat massive tables milled out of stainless steel and the S4 has become something of a reference by which other record players are judged by in central Europe. The S5 version is the same as the S4 except that it has an enclosure made out of stone and glass. These turntables have also been sold under the Cello brand.
Next Page : Discontinued Turntables