Price Paid:  $300.00 from Sault Ste Marie

Summary:
I have had the Rega II for 23 years and it has not failed.

But it was not all wine and roses - in fact lots of Whine - actually induced resonant distortion.

The design is simple, but has a couple of flaws

The glass platter - rings like a bell and the deck vibrates when played at high levels

First the platter - I purchased a Mission sorbathane turntable mat - it was good but not great - so I appied the same deadening principle as Mission does to the topside of the platter, to the bottom side - I pasted 1/16th inch thick cork to the underside - wow - what a difference - NO RING at all.

Next the deck - same treatment - applied the 1/16th thick cork to both top and undersides of the deck

Lastly - what do I sit it on?
Regular shelving of the particle board variety vibrates like crazy.

I Need low mass material with minimal surface area but relatively stiff.

!/4 inch mahogany ply - with 1.5 inch holes to reduce the surface area and to maintain strength - a couple of bracing strips (in the form of L shaped molding) and to top it off - support the shelf on spiked feet

Now this turntable is awsome - can be played at mind numbing levels without any resonant distortion

No more vibration - total cost $60 for cork, plywood and Mission mat

I would stack this deck up against a pile of more expensive decks

Only one last problem - you cannot use the Grado cartridge because they are not sheilded - you'll get lots of hum!

NOTE: The hum is not due to earth problems - it increases linearly as the cartridge approaches the unsheilded motor - only occurs when unit is turned on

Strengths:
Releatively cheap, simple to use, excellent sound, lasts forever!

Weaknesses:
Two basic flaws - a ringing platter and the deck is prone to vibration, but make the minor mods in this review and you'll have a truly excellent turntable for little cost
Cannot use Grado cartridges - too much hum

Similar Products Used:
None - fell in love with this one - knew it had lots of promise

Price Paid:  $200.00 from used

Summary:
Excellent Turntable for the money and quite a bit more.
Fast,detailed with a good solid powerful bass.
Works well with good quality equipment

Strengths:
Detail,Neutral.Ease of use and set up.Lasts forever

Weaknesses:
Needs a good support like a concrete slab under it to prevent vibrations as it does not have suspension.

Price Paid:  $465.00 from online at www.refere

Summary:
nice simple build; very little to go wrong with this manual turntable. recieved without any flaws except for slightly out-of-round felt platter mat and warped dustcover. these "flaws" are not severe enough to warrant a return. the tonearm is nice and setup was easy. i mounted a clearaudio aurum classics wood MM cartridge within 15 minutes and was listening to vinyl 10 minutes later. the turntable/cartridge combo sounds great with good headphones. the cuing doesn's seem to lift high enough on some records - minor problem if one is careful. one also must be careful when lifting the dustcover - don't let your kids flip a record unless you are prepared for the full weight of the cover to come crashing down on the plinth.

Strengths:
nicely built; simple design; good sound.

Weaknesses:
felt mat not round; dustcover slightly warped and unstable when open.

Similar Products Used:
japanese tables (techniques, pioneer)

Price Paid:  $700.00 from sound room

Summary:
worst turntable I ever bought, it comes with cheap press wood base, tone arm is looking good, wiring and quality of the wires is a nightmare, platter is some kind of wooden junk, on/off switch is similar to cheap $5.00 worth of switch, dust cover is nice looking but the hinges are plastic and will break up, sound quality is I don't know buzz comes a lot, I try all of the plugs in the house, same buzz in every plugs, I got rid of it for a half price 3 mounth after the puchase, don't ever buy this junk, you better of buying an older ariston, linn, thorenz, or new turntable in the market made in the Europe, less than half price called PROJECT, I check their web site it looks much better than Rega, and well put together features in that one, I will try it if I don't find an Ariston rd11, I try this rega with three different preamplifiers I have and they all are great preamplifiers, McIntosh C28/ Adcom 555, and aufdible illusion modulus 3A, same noise and buzz was there all the time, I try it with Grace 9f, and shure 15 type 3, a lot of work for a little fun, they have CD player now out in the market, I see it sounds not vey good, I also notice Rega TT in 1983 with a wooden arm, humid wheathers is not to good for that arm, I didn't like their sound and it was a junk then and same junk worth about $180.00 or $190.00 but they are selling it for a furtune. they build a name yuppies like the style. Please don't make mistake as I did, if you are a hard core listener, look for something else.

Strengths:
very good marketing skills.

Weaknesses:
cheap junk,

Similar Products Used:
I owned Ariston, Linn, B&O, Thorens 124/160/165/ some belt and DD japanese tables, this one is the worst one I ever owned.

Price Paid:  $349.00 from www.britaudio.com

Summary:
Let me first fully describe my system. I have a Moth Alamo (copy from Rega of 2) with heavy modifications. I have an acrylic platter, Origin Live external and internal wire mods, Origin Live counterweight mod using a Goldring 1006 cartridge. It's plugged into a Cambridge Audio A500 (with add-in phono chip), using IXOS tri-braid speaker wire into Klipsch SB-2's.

Now, the sound.

I'm using Record 8 from the Final Village Vanguard Sessions of Bill Evans (Mosiac Records). The sound is full and has nice bass to it. The piano tone is full with decay and spaciousness. Reverb is also present.

I'd rate this more natural then my Rotel 955 CD player.

Strengths:
Very musical. Acoustic reverb present without sacraficing dynamics. Very Rhythmic. A solid preformer. The arm is portable---advice to modify as much as possible and if the 'upgrade' itch gets to you, buy something like a VPI HW Jr and use this arm.

Weaknesses:
None for the table. Just wish I could find a cartridge like the 1006 with a longer cantilever (have a bit of trouble with domestic USA pressings---the starting lip/incline).

Similar Products Used:
Thorens TD180 Mk. IV with IXOS external cable upgrade on Mission Spikes with a Grado Blue.