Rega RP1 Or Music Hall MMF-2.2 Turntable?

Not exactly. They source their turntables from the same factory. There's a friendly rivalry between the companies.

 

My MH 2.2 came stock with a PJ tonearm, fwiw

 

Yeah, sure. They share parts. From the same factory. But they're not the same company. Music Hall doesn't make Pro-Ject.

 

If you go for the MH, be sure you can audition it before buying because the lower end models for both Pro-Ject and Music Hall have been known to have problems with motor noise. It's well documented over at vinylengine.com in numerous threads. I've had two Pro-Jects, a Debut III and Xpression II. Both had noisy motors that drove me crazy. I replaced the motor in the Xpression II with a new Pro-Ject motor but it made only a marginal improvement. There are tweaks around the net, and I've tried them all, but in the end, the only way I can enjoy my rig is to listen to it through a digitized signal I run in real time through iZotope RX noise reduction to remove the offending noise. So much for an all-analog experience!

Anyway, not everyone has this problem so again make sure you get to audition before listening. It's not just Pro-Jects either. I noticed the other day that a guy who posts a lot of needledrop videos on Youtube with a VPI Scout/10x5 combo is now getting the same sort of motor noise. I'm planning on upgradine my rig later this year so I'm thinking Rega or Clearaudio may be the only way to go to avoid these problems.

 

This is who makes the turntables - http://www.sev-litovel.cz/en/

 

Rega, I own both RP1 and RP6. And even though the RP6 is clearly the better TT the RP1 is still very enjoyable, mine has the factory "performance" package upgrades. If I needed to buy tomorrow I think I would make the stretch to the RP3.