Price Paid:  $45.00 from E-Bay

Summary:
Older Projet/One DR-700. Bought this to replace my old B&O. For the price I couldn't be happier. Using a Grado Black. Sound is great.

Strengths:
Does the job

Weaknesses:
No dampening.

frbock

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $250.00 from Tweeter

Summary:
It's kind of a non-event, I bought it to replace an aging dual with ortofon lm-20 cartridge. The sound was somewhat better, but, not the blow your socks off I was hoping for. So, I replaced the original Oyster with a Blue point. Yep. That was the ticket. The turntable's stongest point is that it pretty much tracks the right rpm, and there are no adjustments. People have crabbed about the anti-skate, but, I had a Lenco l-70 back in the 70's that had the same thing, and it worked, and it automatically adjusts for position on the disk. There is no adjustment for speed as it uses a synchro motor, but, US grid is pretty accurate on the frequency it produces, so, you aren't likely to hear any variation. Part of me wishes I had a direct drive (for bragging purposes), but, I don't think you are going to get better performance, especially for the price than you will get out of this rig.

Strengths:
Simple beyond belief

Weaknesses:
No adjustability for speed, somewhat light weight cartridge connectors. Attached Oyster. If you want basic LP, it works pretty good. If you need socks blown off, upgrade it, and give the oyster to someone else.

Similar Products Used:
Lenco L70, Technics sl20, Dual 512

bacchanal

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $230.00 from Audiogon

Summary:
This review is for the Pro-ject 1.2 by Sumiko, it is my first turntable. I considered pretty much every option from $50 to $500 dollars, but this table just seemed right. Set up was relatively easy (the cartridge was already installed). The anti-skate thing is a little cheesey, but it works, so I don't see a problem with it. I get very little hum or noise from this table, even with the volume cranked. The oyster cartridge isn't awe inspiring. If anything it sounds a little flat. Someone said that it seems to be designed to sound like a cd, and that description seems accurate to me. I will probably upgrade to something like a grado (red or blue) or an ortofon cartridge eventually. I'm not in a big hurry to upgrade though. For now, I'm spending my money on vinyl. I haven't had any problems with skipping, but I live in an appartment with concrete floors on the ground level. The way this TT is built it looks like it would be pretty sensitive to vibration, so if you have wood floors or whatever, it might take a bit of care to isolate this thing from vibration.

Strengths:
Ease of setup, simplicity. Nice entry level table for the money. It plays records.

Weaknesses:
Not the greatest cartridge. Felt mat is kinda cheap looking. Not exactly a 'tweakers' table.

Similar Products Used:
None

Price Paid:  $270.00 from Tweeter

Summary:
The Pro-Ject 1.2 is my first _real_ turntable, and I bought it to replace the old Marantz semi-auto direct drive (TT 4000) I had been using. In large part, my decision was based on other reviews I had seen on this site. After unpacking the unit, my inital observation was that it was pretty well built. Good heavy platter, solid plinth, a tonearm that was adjustable 9 ways from Sunday. As with some previous users, I was a little disappointed in the quality of the phono cables and interconnects. My left channel RCA plug doesn't go quite as far into its receptacle as the right one, but I can't tell that there is any decrease in sound quality as a result. Setup was a breeze, as the supplied Sumiko Oyster cartridge was already installed and ready to go. Compared to my old Marantz, I was very impressed with the sound this little turntable put out when I first plugged it in. Much lower background noise, more dynamic, with an much wider soundstage. I'm guessing that a lot of this is due to the suspended motor design, which keeps vibration to a minimum. Following the advice of some of the previous reviewers, I installed a Grado Red cartridge after a couple of weeks. All I can say is WOW! It totally changed the sound and personality of the turntable! A huge improvement, and highly recommended upgrade. The only further tweaking I have done was to build a sand-filled isolation box for the turntable. This cut down significantly on the vibrations I could feel on the plinth while playing an LP, and really tightened up the bass and widened out the soundstage a little more. I would recommend some dort of isolation platform for the turntable if you decide to purchase it, as the rubber feet don't really cut it in that department. Overall, I'll give this product 3 stars, as I think it performs very well for its price. I would reserve 4 and 5 star ratings in this category for much more expensive turntables. In the value department, though, the Pro-Ject 1.2 definitely gets 5 stars! Excellent value for the money, and a great way to get into vinyl!

Strengths:
Excellent value! Very good sound when paired with a good cartridge (Sumiko Oyster is good, but do yourself a favor and get the Grado Red). Fully adjustable tonearm (including VTA!). Good looks - minimalist design. Bottom line - best entry level "audiophile" turntable around!

Weaknesses:
Lightweight captive phono cables, with cheesy ends.

Similar Products Used:
Older direct-drive turntables.

Price Paid:  $400.00 from FHM Bonn

Summary:
O.K. I haven't had a record player since '88 and that was an Onkyo combined with some NAD 3020 and Boston Acoustic speakers...Lately I've been in to Electronica and collecting vinyl even though I didn't have a player! Well, I didn't want some $$$$ player and I didn't want some wanna-be-a-dj deck. I considered the NAD unit, but FHM let me listen to the Pro-ject. Its 100 euro cheaper then NAD unit. Maybe I am losing my hearing, but with standard fitted Oyster cartridge, fiddling around with the balance, and feeding it through Pro-ject pre-amp to (yes) a Teac CR-H100 mini-system with Bose speakers...MAN! Its as clean as a CD sound but better!!! I love it! After one day I have already bought 100 bucks worth of vinyl to play on it...I am very happy.

Strengths:
Sound. Build quality. Instructions also tell you on the last page how to re-package your unit for moving (albiet as a picture only)

Weaknesses:
The manual has several grammatical errors. It was not as hard to assemble as I thought but the manual was not so helpfull. You only need a small electronic phillips head scredriver to remove some screws. The belt ''key'' is not even mentioned in the manual. I struggled to know how to align the belt with the motor..best guesses seemed to work.