Sort of a sad story, but not really. If you don't care about vintage audio and vinyl, click out now. :-)
About two years ago I bought a vintage 'pristine' Technics turntable for my son from an eBay seller. I had contacted him via eBay to ask several questions (not regarding a listed item). We transacted the deal outside of eBay. It was close to $500 for a pristine SL-5300. Well it didn't work at all on the auto functions. It was shipped back and the seller basically ignored me for the next several months until I just told him to cancel the deal. Magically a 2nd turntable showed up a few days later. Working out of town, clear across the country, I didn't find the time to check it out and my son took the unopened box upstairs to his room and put it under his desk, patiently awaiting my assistance in setting it up with the new Ortofon cartridge I had purchased separately. Being home only 2 days out of 7, it was an out of sight, out of mind situation. Several months ago, we finally got it out and set up. Guess what? Again it does not work at all on the automatic functions and won't play properly in manual operation either. The seller ignores all communication. I can definitely understand the skepticism. Some joker (me) contacts him a year and a half later saying the turntable doesn't work? Hahaha. Nevertheless, I at least expected a response to my considerate emails informing him of the situation, and I'm 100% positive he didn't die or otherwise jump planet. It was I who took the bigger risk, sending him my money for product sight unseen, than he would be taking in remediation of some kind (I would have even paid him for repairs). I checked into repair locally and the technician said it was complicated enough that he really couldn't tell me what it would cost. BTW, the cartridge that was shipped as part of the turntable deal (not the Ortofon) was also defective. Repair may still be possible from a place in Montana that specializes in vintage turntable refurbishing. There's a $35 diagnostic fee. I had early on considered just purchasing a brand new Technics turntable for him, but went the vintage route to get the automatic features (all the new Technics are manual only). ... plus his amplifier and tuner are 1970's Pioneer, though coupled to a new pair of PSB loudspeakers. In the meantime, after having manufactured the same basic turntable since 1972, Technics announced in November 2010 that they were ceasing all production of vinyl turntables. I didn't know that until several months ago. Well the price on existing stock has doubled over what it was pre-announcement (more than a K-5)!!! Nevertheless I asked my son and he said he would take a manual turntable. So a brand new top of the line Technics SL-1210M5G from B&H arrives for him tomorrow. I can guarantee it's getting set up and checked out tomorrow night. Even at that price, it basically out specs or equals many modern day audiophile turntables that cost $1000's more (if they even publish specs). So hopefully this will be a happy ending for him and I can get the SL-5300 repaired for myself. I can't wait to hear what a couple of LP's sound like with this hi-fi setup. static... we now return you control of your... (fill in the blank) to you. Tom C. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
