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Review 1 of 1
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I hate to rain on everyones parade but I don't agree with the universal good reviews this product has been getting. Let me just begin by stating I was a young audiophile in the days just before CD's hit the market. I have owned a lot of turntables including a Thorens TD160, Dual 1229, Ariston RD40, and a few other very good but not high end tables. I decided to get back into records a few years back and bought this table. I still have a lot of nearly new cartridges around so I mounted a Denon DL110 on it and started listening. The overall sound of the table is decent enough, albeit quite veiled. However, the real problem it has it appears is arm design. This thing has trouble tracking almost anything I threw at it. There is significant mistracking and distortion with almost every cartridge I mounted on it. I tried a Stanton 881S Stereohedron which fared the best, the Denon I mentioned, a Shure M97HE, and an Ortofon OM40. I thought maybe my memory just has faded and I have forgotten about some of the problems associated with vinyl reproduction. So I unpacked my Dual 1229 which is in mint condition and which I completely restored in the late 90's. My memory was not failing me but the Rega table was. I mounted the Denon DL110 on the Dual and fired up dozens of the same albums I tried on the Rega. The Dual sails through nearly everything like it was gliding through silk. No mistracking, no distortion, unbelievably quiet surfaces. It was like night and day. THAT is the way vinyl magic should sound! I aligned the cartridges on the Rega with a Rega protractor so I know they were properly aligned, I tried everything to get this table to sound as good as a mid-fi table from the 60's or 70's. This level of mistracking will destroy a record in only a few passes. I am quite frankly shocked by the inability of the P1 to properly track a record and equally shocked at the unbelievably transparent quality of the Dual 1229. It's very hard to tell the difference between the inner and outer grooves for god sake, where the Rega balked like crazy as it approached the inner grooves on nearly anything. The Dual was a good table in its day but certainly couldn't be considered high end. So my advise to anyone looking for an entry level table is stay away from these modern budget units (I tried the Project Debut and if you can believe it was not even as good as the P1). Get a good used vintage table and a good cartridge. I had very high hopes when I bought the Rega but I am sad to report it doesn't live up to the billing. I have heard enough good and bad tables where I know poor arm design when I hear it and folks this is subpar. Perhaps the P3 is a much better unit, I don't know. But don't be fooled by the sycophants at Stereophile, perhaps their memories are failing them, they should break out their old TD160's and then tell me what you think of this table. if you are going to try this unit, just be sure you can get a 30 day trial period to be sure it is for you. Meanwhile the Dual 1229 has assumed its rightful place back in my system next to the mint restored Heathkit W5's and I am really enjoying my huge vinyl collection again and even buying a lot of new albums. It's hard to believe the high level of sound reproduction that was available 30 or 40 years ago.
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