I've been playing vinyl records continuously since the 1970's, owning a bunch of different turntables in that time. But what's the state of the turntable market in 2019? Should you buy new or vintage? I thought it was about time to upgrade my vinyl setup again, so I went out and bought some turntables to test. In this video, I scientifically test four turntables in various performance metrics that I think are important, and then judge them on look & feel and value. Along the way, I hope to answer whether you should buy a new or vintage turntable (and even which specific model).

Included in this test: representing the vintage era, my venerable old fully automatic, direct drive Sony PS-LX3 and the decidedly all manual (but also direct drive) Technics SL-1200 Mk5; and for the new turntables, the semi-auto belt-driven Fluance RT-82, and the full auto belt-driven Denon DP-300F. All of these models offer something unique that I wanted to try out. The performance results were somewhat surprising!

I purchased all of these turntables with my own money; none were provided by the manufacturers. Buyee helped out with shipping from Japan but I bought the products themselves.

btw, I actually don't get a cut from anything you buy on Buyee (nor any of the manufacturers in this test), but I do have Amazon affiliate links that I'd love it if you used if you buy a domestic turntable:

https://ebay.to/2mHXr6o
https://amzn.to/31WMDoJ

As promised, here are a couple of cartridge comparison videos that I like from around YouTube. Keep in mind that YouTube is still compressing the music so these won't sound exactly the same in your home, but you can still use these videos to compare cartridges against each other and the differences are often obvious:

   • World's Biggest Phono Cartridge Shootout  
   • Phono Cartridge Shootout 1