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I caught the vinyl bug and I am looking to buy a new high end record player. I have been looking on eBay and found this one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-60s-REK-O-KUT-N-34H-Belt-Driven-Turntable-Record-Player-Parts-or-Repair-/322436134650?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT  Does anyone have any information on it? I only read that it used to be used in radio stations. Has anyone ever owned one and does it have a good sound?  I'm willing to pay up to $200 and fix it up. Thanks in advance.

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9 hours ago, LouieHernandez said:

I caught the vinyl bug and I am looking to buy a new high end record player. I have been looking on eBay and found this one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-60s-REK-O-KUT-N-34H-Belt-Driven-Turntable-Record-Player-Parts-or-Repair-/322436134650?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT  Does anyone have any information on it? I only read that it used to be used in radio stations. Has anyone ever owned one and does it have a good sound?  I'm willing to pay up to $200 and fix it up. Thanks in advance.

I don't know anything about it but if you're willing to put $250 into it, why not just look at a brand new U-Turn?

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10 hours ago, LouieHernandez said:

I caught the vinyl bug and I am looking to buy a new high end record player. I have been looking on eBay and found this one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-60s-REK-O-KUT-N-34H-Belt-Driven-Turntable-Record-Player-Parts-or-Repair-/322436134650?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT  Does anyone have any information on it? I only read that it used to be used in radio stations. Has anyone ever owned one and does it have a good sound?  I'm willing to pay up to $200 and fix it up. Thanks in advance.

That is likely a decent turntable. Rek O Kut's were fine tables, but unless you have the skills yourself, you will likely be wasting your money. The belt alone is $40 +shipping, and would be one of the easier things to fix on it. Then, if you want to replace it with a halfway decent cart, you're looking at another $100 easy.

 

I'd take the above poster's advice and go with something inexpensive and new like a U-Turn.

 

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Listen to these guys. Fixing old equipment is fun and really not that hard once you have the service manual, but I'd start tinkering with something cheaper unless you have some knowledge already. So if anything goes awry it'll be on a cheap table rather than your primary. That's also a manual table, which is fine, but automatic makes listening to records much more enjoyable, imo. 

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If you want used aim at the 70's. The turntable as a thing hit it's zenith in the 70's and many of todays most prized and best performing tables and their copies came out of the 70's.

 

I can't really give much advice on Rek O Cuts as they never made any headway over here in the UK as we had Garrard but what I will say is I wouldn't buy anything like that unless I could have a very good look at things like the main bearing, the motor and it's mountings and bushing and most definitely the arm and it's bearings. A lot of those things will be very specialist if they need to be replaced

 

And lastly one other thing to consider is that 60's tables like the Garrard 301's and 401's, Thorens TD124's and Lenco GL99's are highly prized and very expensive mostly because they are legendary 60's tables used by radio stations at the time and becasue they are designed to be used with any arm you care to try not just one fixed arm so can use modern technology while still looking cool and more importantly sounding very good.

 

If you have a $250 budget there are a lot of very good tables from the 70's available for sort that money or as has been said buy a new U Turn

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Yeah I would not know how to fix it. I have an old BSR XL-1200 right now and it isn't working right. It makes some clicking noises and does not go to the next song. Not sure if it's worth fixing it. I couldn't  see what was wrong with it after looking inside. I never even heard of a U-Turn and they look pretty cool So maybe that is the option for me. thanks.

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On 3/3/2017 at 8:53 AM, Jlegg said:

 

 

I'd take the above poster's advice and go with something inexpensive and new like a U-Turn.

 

 

The U-Turn is not a "high end" table.

However, the OP says he is willing to spend "up to $200", which won't buy you any high end record player anyway.

If the OP wants " high end", I suggest he saves up another $800 or so.

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11 minutes ago, vinyl addict said:

 

The U-Turn is not a "high end" table.

However, the OP says he is willing to spend "up to $200", which won't buy you any high end record player anyway.

If the OP wants " high end", I suggest he saves up another $800 or so.

"High end" is subjective. We have no idea what he is using now. He says he is looking for "record player" and I've never met anyone who refers to something like a VPI as a record player. So my guess his high end is not necessarily the same as ours. When I had a Music Hall 2.1 I considered that high end, but now that I have a lower tier VPI, I consider the higher priced ones high end and not my Traveler V2.

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It's like when rednecks put on their fanciest Affliction shirts and bedazzled jeans to go out to eat at "The Outback." If you're used to McDonald's (Crosley) then Outback (U-Turn) would be your high end. 

 

We're arguing semantics, but yeah, I agree with you. VPI is something I would consider high end, a $300 table I would not, but I wouldn't even consider a $300 as mid tier, and a lot of people do.

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To someone new to vinyl, anything you can't buy at Target is probably high end.  

 

To the answer the person's question; vintage gear can be rewarding if you have time and money to put into it.  The idea that you're going to save money is almost never the case.  Like people said, buy a U-Turn.

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