Frank Forman here. You know me either personally or from my ARSC Journal
discographies, one with Kenzo Amoh on Eygeny Mravinsky and the other, a
three-part article on acoustic chamber music sets.
I inherited a Technics SL-1500MK2 workhorse turntable from the late
Allen Mackler after he got such an overdose of music working at WETA-FM,
in the DC area, where both of us lived, that he abandoned music
altogether, despite having a splendid collection of classical 78s and LPs.
It worked splendidly for a long time, but now one or the other channels
goes out randomly. The problem can't be frayed wires, for I need merely
unplug and replug the extension cable to the cable that comes out of the
unit, and the sound comes back in correctly, but only for a while, a
decreasing while over the years.
I downloaded a manual (not a step-by-step instruction guide but rather a
set of exploded diagrams and a parts list) off the Web, and it seems to
me that all the fancy electronics in the turntable is given over
entirely to speed control, not to the matter of the sound from the
needle to the shell down the tone arm, and out of the unit with a pair
of RCA-type male plugs, which plug into my integrated amplifier.
Best would be to get the turntable fixed (and not buy a used one on
eBay, which goes for $600-$800), but barring that I'd like
recommendations on a turntable that is "good enough" for me to make
transfers to my computer, using a little box called INport, into which I
use RCA-type plugs from the tape output of the amp on one end and a USB
port to go into my computer on the other end. What is vital is that I be
able to use two needles, one a 1 mil conical needle and the other a 0.7
mil elliptical one.
Ion's USB turntables seem all to come with a cartridge that is a fixed
part of the tone arm, so it seems I'll need a different brand of
turntable. Since I have the INport box, I don't need a turntable that is
USB-ready. I'll have no further use for a turntable after I have made
computer files of my remaining LPs, so please don't recommend anything
expensive, like over $200.
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