New DD turntable from Onkyo

It is. I should have said "beat up" rather than "ugly". I'd imagine the carbon fiber tonearm was pretty state of the art for the early 80s.

 

I just hope that all of these Hanpin ventures don't end up saturating the market with essentially the same engineering and quality...and then the badged companies bailing out of turntables once again as being 'unprofitable'.

You'd think *someone* would break ranks and develop a deck that could beat out the Hanpin offerings. Belt OR Direct Drive. For instance, any turntable from Pioneer's 1978 turntable lineup would beat anything coming out of Hanpin now, as far as audiophile use is concerned. Is the DJ market growing? I really don't know...I had assumed that it was shrinking, and that the audiophile and/or listening public market was the one with all the growth.

 

I believe the audiophile market is still in the niche category.

 

So the question is how does it compare to the new Pioneer. Any enterprising member feel like picking the two up and comparing?

 

I guess for many these Hanpins might be good enough, but essentially I see all these branded Hanpins as very similar, I guess it really doesn´t matter much which one you pick.
These are made for some to be able to make some money on vinyl, in reality they could be anything they could make money on. Is this good or bad, I don´t know, but to make them doesn´t cost much in China, and they certainly aren´t made by a TT manufacterer, so any high end approach isn´t really possible, as I see it, they just make something that they can sell. IMO

 

Well, it really doesn't. Apples vs. Oranges, other than they probably share the same motor. Clearly, the Onkyo is not aimed at the DJ market, so in that respect it's somewhat of a relief and a new and exciting step in the world of turntables...finally there is a DD turntable back on the market at a consumer price point that is designed for listening to records moreso than working with them, or to rephrase, a turntable that is for reproducing music, not creating music. There's a whole host of features on the Pioneer that you won't find on the Onkyo, most notably a pitch control. They're also about $200 apart in price, significant if you put it in terms that you could buy the Onkyo AND an Orbit by UTurn for the same price as the Pioneer. Depends on what you want, aesthetically and functionally.

 

Wherever this Onkyo 'table is made, it's worlds better than this cringe-inducing "record player" :

 

That seems reasonable to me.

I thought it looked nice. But like a poster said above it looks like a mid level table you would have bought back in the 70s. Nothing wrong with that.

 

Most mid-level tables from the 70's would blow the doors off of anything < $1000 today. As one might expect...everyone was listening to vinyl back then. The competition was intense. Vinyl today is a niche market, and within that niche, audiophile listening is a much, much smaller niche.

It would be interesting to see some data about the modern vinyl market demographics... how many are DJ types, how many are hipsters more interested in the format than the quality of sound, how many are newbies that are somewhere along the learning curve that vinyl requires, and how many are old school vinyl folks with decades of experience in studying, working with, reading up on, discussing, enjoying turntables.

 

$499 @ Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-CP-1050...-CP-1050-Direct-Drive-Turntable/dp/B00RMPDBU2

 

Forget these companies: buy American just get a vpi made in America by a family owned business or a vintage Thorens from Schopper

 

Found this on AudioKarma:

So...word to the wise, if you're new to turntables, you're probably going to want to read up on protractors and learn how to do an alignment. His advice here is to upgrade the stylus for the supplied cartridge that is already mounted in the headshell. That might work...IF the factory did, in fact, align the cartridge in the first place. I'm skeptical...they didn't bother to include an overhang gauge or specs, so likely it's not something that was considered by the manufacturer.

 

I hear you. I like what Schopper does with the 124's. Speaking of the "little guys who concentrate on quality", I've been looking at the Salvation table from Trans-Fi for the last 3 years, now. It will most likely be my next deck. I already have Vic's T3 Pro tonearm (it's awesome). On top of that, Vic's a great guy to deal with. I'd still like to see "the big boys" put out a great table; but, right now the little guys are already doing it and doing it well.

 

Has it been confirmed that this is another Hanpin table?

 

Yes.

 

I hate to say it, but I love those. They should bring those back. I wonder if there is a Chinese company capable of copying them.....hmmm?

 

Can I upgrade the stylus?

 

Shibata "Traveler"

 

Looks like people are buying from amazon. Stock has gone down quite a bit.

 

It's a bit of a sad situation. The once 'Greats' can't even resurrect one of their 'Classic' designs, instead relying on Hanpin designs for what can be tagged for copycats. But I just bought a Denon DP-300F, and that's made in china, but it looks solid and has 6+ years of pretty enthusiastic reviews. Now whether Hanpin made it I don't know. It looks like none of their tell-tale models, it actually looks pretty nice. But at $235 shipped and a year warranty, I'm not about to complain too much about it.
But the Member that thought I was picking on him and his Pioneer PLX-1000 is now invited to get revenge on me, in all fairness.
What we could use though, and it would be a neat idea, is to find some Hoffman ites with experience in machining, and might even have a machine shop-and start coming up with 'mods' for lower end tables like the DP-300F and others. It would be fun to take a $349 table and elevate it to the next level up with some cool mods.
I know it'd be nice to 'damp' the cueing in the Denon and get an arm rest with a tonearm lock on it for starters.
But I've already ordered an 'upgraded' belt for it from LP Gear-hell for $19 it's a hell of a cheap upgrade from the reviews I've read.

the beave

 

Have you seen the Pioneer PL-30-K?

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/Audio-Components/Pioneer+Turntables/PL-30-K

 

A normal straight headshell can be used with very little modification. I used a straight headshell off one of my old Technics on my Denon DP-300F. I use it as a spare cartridge. All I had to do was make the 2 screw slots a tad wider with a dremel.

 

I always wanted one of those. Does anyone reproduce them?

 

They likely do it in the factory, however, I'm betting that they're not expecting the end-user to swap out cartridges. Of course, how well it is done in the factory is another matter altogether.

 

Well, it seems like the Die has been Cast and there's no looking back. If a company like Denon had the Balls to dress up a Hanpin and list it for $2499 and call it a 'real' Denon TT, then the pride/shame factor is thrown out the window. The DP-300F I just bought has been making Denon money for what, 6, 7 years it's been in production???? They list it at $349, sell it for $329 and probably pay the chinese factory $67 for the finished product, wholesaling it out for $150 or so, maybe a bit higher.
And look at the thread here for the Pioneer PLX-1000. Even in a respected mag like Stereophile, the chap reviewing the TT didn't blink an eye that the Tonearms bearings were loose. (!!!!!!!!!!). Back in the old days that would have been a badge of shame to any Japanese manufacture and the reviewer would have most likely packed it up and shipped it back. Now for the new Hanpin/Pioneer, Stereophile doesn't even care, 'ah, no big deal'........NO.....to me it shows a TOTAL lack of QC on the part of the Manufacture AND Pioneer.....
the beave