Lovely, restored Pioneer PL-518 turntable on eBay. Pretty, but worth it?

My experience is that the arms of Pioneer Turntables are awful.

Note that I have an SME III, so I might be spoiled. Note to Dudley—if your restorations keep selling you must be doing something right.

 

I own a SME 3009 II Improved as one of my arm options, Robin L, I am spoiled with you. For me, my main turntable must be broadcast grade or better and able to tolerate high hours use when needed without fail or high maintenance. So, I am a Technics SP series man or QRK, Russco, or Gates man.

 

Just bought one! Guy wouldn't come down paid $175and it sounds amazingly better then two previous turntables I've owned which were new

 

I hear you guys praising todays TurnTables and bashing these classic designed beauties oth. It may not be a good Thorens or a DUAL 701 but if you look at it you start to wonder how much these would cost today ? Definitely twice as much as 600 probably more like 2 grand. Which modern table will 'run rings around it' in the 600 dollar range ? REGA RP 1, Pro-Ject Expression ? Maybe they may sound nearly as good or a tad different but they do not look that great AND esp. there is no automatic attached to it.
Okay I would not buy it for 600 bucks neither but I think you could do much worse;
Stick a 400 dollar cart on it and you can enjoy LPs for years to come..
My 2 cent

 

I now run a Pioneer PL 518 as my second turntable. Paid $60 for mine. It needed a little cleaning, lubrication, and cleaning the pitch control potentiometers and speed switch. It performs well, keeps speed nicely, and does the job nicely for me without fuss.

 

Dudley, do still drop in on the forum anymore? This is an old thread but I can attest to the quality of Dudley's work. I bought a Technics turntable from him that I gave my son. Packed like a pro and looked and played like new. I still use a pair of restored KLH Model 5 speakers that I bought from Dudley everyday. Beautiful to look at and listen to. That Technics SL 1600 you have for sale looks nice. Hope all is well, Dudley.

 

I'll tell you what, if you take into account that a SL-1200 went for over a grand, if the 518's build quality is up to that standard, I can easily see a fully restored one going for 6 bills.
The kit is gorgeous and it IS a monster, heavy as all get out-I just pulled one out of the garage to try and 'rebuild' it myself. But when I pulled it out yesterday I couldn't help drool over the sheer build quality of this, and my current kit is a Music Hall 5.1-no slouch for a quality TT, but it doesn't come close to the look and feel of the Pioneer, hell even the heavy rubber mat and platter are impressive by themselves.
the beave

 

Hardly. Running circles meaning what exactly? A tad bit less noise, maybe?

I agree the price is far too high for its age, but that table is a very respectable unit. Well built, fairly quiet, not nearly as mediocre as some are trying to bash it to be.

 

It is vintage, it is a big name brand.

Factoring in inflation though, that is not a cheap table. I know what junk tables of that era are like, that is far from junk or mediocre.

 

This is not junk, it is excellent enough to have earned a place in one of my systems. Which is all the endorsement you need.

 

I just picked up a PL-510a with a Pickering cartridge at Goodwill for $20. Nice little table.

 

Good Points Baron.
One Thing though, I have in the past and still do, consider Thorens and Most Dual Turntables very Ugly, and I mean UGLY pieces of gear.
The Pioneers of the 60s 70s and 80's were very tastefully designed. And whomever designed the Headshells for the classic Thorens should be shot and THEN sent to the russian front. (Nice Hogans Heroes reference there)!

the beave

 

I'll respond in another 16 months.

 

I've had my PL 518 for over 30 years and it is the only component I never felt needed to be upgraded in all that time and other than the dried out feet (which it just sits on now) it has never given a lick of trouble.

I am running an A/T 440 MLa in mine.

 

Woaaaaa. The Purple Monster AT. On a 30 year old deck. Tell us more please. Like how it tracks etc.
the beave

 

As far as I am concerned, the Pioneer PL 518 and A/T 440 MLa might as well have been made for one another; a match made in heaven.

IGD had been a problem with a number of LPs rendering a great number virtually unlistenable with the previous (20 yo) A/T cartridge I had been using. The same records suddenly got a new lease on with the 440 MLa. Astonishing and totally unexpected.

At $99.00, the MLa was the single best system improvement I ever made for the money.

 

I had that on backorder with Amazon for $99 and then lost patience when they couldn't give a 'restock' date. So I ended up with the AT120E for $69. Can't complain, it too is a killer cartridge.
the beave

 

Like as in how Robin? To flat out say that they suck and not say why is just kind of odd for a poster like yourself being fairly detailed in most all responses.

Btw, are these arms considered high or low mass arms?

 

Medium to high and I am willing to retract what I have said in light of a recent purchase. I got a Sansui 222 last week, a turntable designed to compete with the Pioneer PL-12. Unless I'm mistaken both turntables used arms manufactured by Jelco. By using a cartridge designed to track at 3 grams the Sansui 222 works wonders with old, worn records. I'll bet that a similarly equipped Pioneer table of the same vintage would give similar results. Back when I was hearing the Pioneer turntables and they became ubiquitous in California nobody knew how to properly set up a turntable and the tables with the Jelco arms, designed for lower compliance cartridges, were invariably matched with high compliance cartridges. As so many cartridges today are comparatively low-compliance I suspect they would sound pretty good in a properly set up system. I should note that for decades I kept going back to the AR XA, guess there was something about its sound that always drew me back.

Pioneer PL-12D



Sansui 222:

 

I can tell you what won't run circles around it, Project Xpression and Debut, and get ready for it, the almighty SL-1200,
minus the tone arm damper. Still have all of the decks mentioned, and the Pio is one of my favs.

 

The Sansui arm is not made by Jelco, but is excellent itself. I have serviced a few Sansui tables and liked them.

 

I liked a lot of the 70s tables. The white rock Kenwood, the Marantz were very nice, a Sony, Technics, and Pioneers all fine with me.

Remember the big gold Empire table? Was that one all it was cracked up to be? I recall seeing it on prime display in 1973.

 

Their Critical Mass.
the beave

 

The 'table part was great, the arm part not so much. Pretty looking, good pace. Could used a different arm.