Vinyl Breakdown, pt. 2
There are turntables, and then there are turntables. I have owned them for years....never spending more than twenty dollars on one, shunning high grade HiFi gear for goodwill garbage. I say garbage now because my eyes have been opened.
Enter the pioneers PL-518, or as I like to call her, Voyager. Not after Star Trek, because the design dates to 1977, the year the Voyager missions launched.
Voyager features auto return, a direct drive mechanism, buttery-smooth oil-actuated queueing lever, a brand spankin' new Empire cartridge and stylus, fully adjustable tone arm, built in strobe for speed adjusting, a visually appealing heavyweight wooden plinth, and general fit and finish that is simply impeccable. This is all well and good, but on an audio quality level is where she really soars....put simply, the improvement over my old (but ironically several years newer) Technics table is astounding. Also worth noting that the rubber feet on this model are notorious for degrading overtime to the point of breaking. But these ones somehow are in perfect condition.