Any thoughts music hall MMF 5.3 turntable?

I also see that Galen Carol Audio still has the 7.1 listed as available with the $500 cart for $1270. Just another option...I would call if interested, or e mail directly. They usually respond quickly.
Galen Carol Audio: Turntables and Turntable/Tonearm Combinations »

 

I purchased a MMF 5.3 in April of this year. It has an aluminum arm and is gloss black. As I thought, the black would show dust and it does. I use a Milty to help lesson how much sticks.

The motor is a DC unit so a Speed Box won't work with it. I really hoped it would so I wouldn't have to change the belt to change speeds. It's not a quick starting platter and it doesn't seem to be real powerful either.

The MMF took the place of my Dual 1229 and it outshines it in terms of platter quietness and speed stabilization. Not so much that I noticed the Dual speed variance but it was there. The dust cover was difficult to get onto the hinge pins but it works real well.

Not sure if it tracks better than the Dual, I never had an issue in that area, but I figure a new quality tone arm must have some merits over one that's almost 50 years older.

My consensus is I'm happy with the MMF 5.3.

 

I went ahead and purchased the 5.3se back in April from Soundstagedirect. When I ordered, a week went by, no turntable, so I emailed. Turned out they weren't able to ship because of changes to the turntable. They said if I waited on it, they would give a 12% discount, and I agreed to that. The table arrived the second week of June. The neat thing is that they honored the original price, minus 12%, but the turntable shipped with a carbon fiber tonearm instead of the advertised alloy arm. In essence, a $1395 turntable for $865. And I love the table!

 

I ordered the 5.3se on Saturday and it arrived today. I had a coupon for 20% off from Elusive Disc so I used it. This is the Rosenut with Ortofon 2M Bronze and carbon fiber tonearm. My 15 year old Musichall MMF-1 w/M97xe gave up its ghost and I had been wanting to upgrade for some time anyway. To my old guy ears this is a wonderful sounding rig, granted it's all subjective but more punch, clearness and depth of the music is evident from first spin. So far I have listened to King Crimson "In the Court of the Crimson King" 200 gram, Alan Parsons Project "I Robot" 45rpm Original Master Recording and now Klaatu "3:47 EST". Little Neutrino sounds as it should. Now the wife gets to hear all of my vinyl once again granted these days I have a dedicated sound room in the basement and her den is on the 2nd floor so a few floors away but if it's loud enough it can still be heard and felt. Only bummer is my Q UP tonearm lifter does not fit without modding it.

 

Bought a lightly used 5.1 years ago and would do it again in a heartbeat. Any problems are solved with little hassle as it's easy to service. I changed the motor last year very cheaply and got excellent 'how to' advice from Roy Hall to boot.

 

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! Mine is the same model as yours, and after roughly 1/2 year, I'm loving it more and more!

 

This unit has captured my attention also. Question. What do you have to do to change to 45 speed? Also, my searches show that this unit has a carbon fiber arm (know it was a concern from several posts here). I am assuming they've update the arm since this thread. Can anyone provide any info on my questions?

Thanks...Al

 

I'm a new 5.3 owner and I'm very happy. Dead silent and came with the Ortofon Bronze cartridge. It comes pretty much pre setup at the factory, so there isn't a whole lot to do before you're playing records. I've suffered hearing loss and am a hearing aid user, so I am not going to say much about the it's SQ, other than I enjoy it very much. To change to 45 rpm, you have to lift the platter and move the belt. I play only LPs at 33.3, so that isn't an issue for me. It still has very low hours on it and I'm using brand new Peachtree D4 speakers, so the best is yet to come.

 

I've had my 5.3se for almost a year. It came with the carbon fiber arm. I don't play 45's, but I know it involves adjusting the belt on the pulley. No big deal from what I've heard. Mine has the Ortofon 2m bronze and sounds great!

 

Couldn't be much easier. Only an issue if constantly switching back in the course of a day.