Just £100 less than the 1500C, and with no preamp and cheaper cart (even though I would rather have a(nother) VM95 instead of O)? I do not think it was worth bothering.
Assuming you have a preamp. You could put the price difference into a microline or shibata stylus for the 95 and have a much better sounding turntable than the 1500C is out of the box, for near enough the same money.
I'd rather have this than the 1500 with a phono stage I'd never use. I also couldn't care less about the cartridge. Perhaps Technics should have dropped the price a bit more an not included any. Is this the same arm as the 1200/1210 GR?
"Dull", pssh. I think it's "svelte". I think the black and silver bits on the 100C look a little mix-n-match.
This. And if it's essentially 1500C without a preamp, then the name 100C along with this "entry level" campaign sounds like it's much weaker turntable. Beginners, at which it's primarily aimed, would be better off with the 1500's preamp in the "bundle".
Any serious Turntable doesn't have an integrated preamp. Why you spend more than $1,000 on a tt and use the integrated preamp or the cartridge included????????? If you do that you only need a AT-120.
How is it 'much weaker'?? And fyi many people above the level of 'beginner', who don't need strobes and pitch-faders, are interested in a 1500C without a preamp.
It's probably not and that's the problem. The name doesn't suit it. Should've call it 1500C-something.
The 'beginners' must have been really excited when they saw the 1500 was $500 cheaper than the 1200! Lol...
In all fairness, "entry-level" was the term used by What Hi-Fi? in the title of the article I linked. I don't see Technics saying that.
This should NOT be the case. ..There is no engineering/ evidenced based reason why RIAA equilization circuitry cannot - with good results - take place within the turntable. ..We've been fooled by the audio gear companies into believing that we need yet another component and cables to accomplish this technically easy and straight forward feat. In any other field of engineering it would be considered poor execution to split into 2-boxes what could be built into one. If not built into the table itself, then phono pre-amps should be built-in to the integrated-amp (or pre-amp, etc.). IMHO, the fetishizing of the phono pre-amp is pointless. Today, the phono sections of integrated amps add far less noise of their own than is already in the record grooves themselves - in other words, groove noise is the limiting factor, NOT the phono preamp. Moreover, outboard phono preamps often create their own hum issues b/c they require yet 2 add'c cables that mingle with an already large tangle of cables behind our equipment. Outboard phono preamps also have separate power sources which mean another grounding point - again, a frequent source of noise. Turning phono pre-amps into yet another expensive component is NOT an engineering based decision, it's a marketing decision.
Technics did listen to customer demand, that's great ! Now we need to know how the deck/tonearm perform against 1500C without phono/2M red., its not clear to me where it differs apart from the color choice.
I believe those are the differences- no phono/ no 2M Red/ different color. We'll have to wait to find out if anything else different. I certainly hope they didn't cheap out on other materials..
I think it's a decision most of us appreciate- having the choice to mix and match components to our liking, as opposed to being 'stuck' with the one the manufacturer chose to include (usually based on financial advantage). To be fair there are several turntables currently on the market with integrated phono stages, offering the 'plug n play' experience to those that want it.
I'll be watching this with great interest. i was looking at spending around £1500 to upgrade my current set up, but this has changed that plan.
Entry level is a relative term. For the average kid (not loaded) starting out, $1000 might not be the starting point. My experience with this was in 1981 when purchased an SL D2 for $100. This is about $300 today. Threw a $65 Shure cartridge at it and was happy for many decades with that deck. Now for an older adult, that already owns a nice system but wants to get into vinyl, or back into it, owns a few records from childhood or inherited the parents collection, $1000 might be the perfect price point.
I bought a 2M Red for my Kenwood KD-2070 because I wanted something cheap and didn't know any better. It is what it is. A $100 hot cart with a bonded elliptical stylus. I use it to play used records before I decide whether or not it is OK to use a better cart/stylus.
2M is not a very good cart imo, the VM is much better, irregardless of price. A no brainer if you work for Technics and have ears.
Absolutely, if this deck is any good and you stick a vm95ml stylus on it you will have a great new budget TT.
