My New (old) Turntable - the Denon DP-47F
A surprising number of people enquired whether I would be making a video about my new turntable. They'd spotted it in a couple of recent videos and were interested to know why I'd replaced my Sansui. The simple answer is nothing more exciting than I wanted a record player with a hinged lid, but also I'll take any excuse to buy something as smart as this.
Initially I thought there wouldn't be enough to say about it, beyond the fact it's a record player and it plays records. However as you'll see, this ended up occupying twenty minutes of video.
So in the video I explain why I chose this particular 'vintage' turntable, I pass on a few tips for anyone thinking of buying a second hand player and explain my laissez-faire attitude when it comes to chasing audio quality.
I hope you enjoy the video.
Comments (54)
This was a well timed video for me as it came out just as I was buying a used (but shop serviced) Technics 1200 Mk2. I like the simplicity of that but yours is a very interesting player and it's amazing all that fancy stuff still works (and I was worried about my gimbal bearings having notches!) Audiophiles can be worth listening to but only up to a point. Sometimes they go well beyond diminishing returns. I'm currently trying to decide whether an external phono stage is worth it (and how expensive it needs to be). You'd think someone would take measurements but no, it's all "open soundstage" and "warm sound", which could be real or imaginary. Still, records do sound good and buying old ones is a good way to find new music to listen to.
I have stopped reading hifi magazines and reviews. In my opinion (as a Certified Curmudgeon (TM)) they have gone beyond science and common sense and zoned out into full-fledged tinfoil hattiness. According to them, anything which is more than ridiculously expensive and claims to minimise some hitherto unknown form of distortion is good. Personally, 80s stuff is great for me. I can't hear the difference anyway, being more than about 6 months old.
I enjoyed this video so much I increased my contribution amount! Earlier in life would you have ever thought you’d find your calling making YouTube videos enjoyed by millions of people worldwide?
I always thought I could be earning a living with computers somehow, but with no discernible skills, I never thought I’d get the opportunity. Thanks for helping me to live my dream.
off topic but I am curious, have you ever gone over your current home theater audio setup and talked about the hows and why's of your choices? So many stereos have multiple decoding formats or sound schemes and I kind of flip flop between them but don't rightly always know what the differences are. can you? or.. have you talked about this and I missed it? do you use EQ's to enhance sound, or only let itplay flat, to sound truest to it's origin "pure" form? and same with movies. do you tweak the eq at all with those?
I ask because i see you not as a audiophile affionado but as a everyday guy with a keen understanding of all this tech stuff, so there is this nice sort of.. approachable quality in what you do that just clicks well for me. And.. if you haven't done any of this.. maybe a idea for a future video when you are stumped on content.. lol. IF that ever happens.
I have two Technics SL-1200MK2 that I bought about 10 years ago for DJ'ing. They're worth about twice what I paid for them now however I'll never sell them. I rarely DJ any more, I have one of them in my hifi for general record listening. There's something very enjoyable about vinyl! Love the jacket by the way!
Great video! It doesn’t have to be the best, it just has to work
Oh man i am in similar search of a record player, with pretty much the same preferences, although it does not need to be serviced or mint. I have been looking at some Technics and Sansuis, but its not quite easy and i have a "tight" budget of 300€-ish. Great Video as usual and has some nice advice inside!
Great stuff. I am so surprised you didn't invest in one of those Laser turntables with no physical stylus.. haha. I mean, they're not THAT expensive. Though it would be right kool to see you demo or try one to get a feel for the difference and explain to us what it is. But.. Whereas I'm not a HiFi gourmet.. I do love Audiophile like details to geek over sometimes.
Another excellent video. Thank you!
anyone else like to get high and watch techmoan vids?
Super enjoyed the video. Thanks!
Oh I’ve been waiting for this ever since the sneak peak a while back in the Star Wars Soundtrack Review. Oh what a beauty you have there, everything is so dignified and quaint. Your suit was very catching, are they a custom design? It’s surprising that a Strobe was not included to visualise the speed but a gloriously design non the less. I’m sure your tips will assist many in their search for the perfect turntable. Cheers Mat
Yes I would have liked a strobe just for looks, but I guess Denon thought that it was superfluous with a quartz lock combined with the magnetic rotation sensor. Most of the more eccentric clothes I wear come from joebrowns.co.uk, and that's where this one came from.
Great video and nice machine! The thing that really surprised me was your enthusiasm for the fully automatic operation of your turntable, which seems to be a big change since your video on the Sharp RP-114 vertical turntable. I went back and reviewed the latter to make sure I hadn't remembered wrong. The direct quote is, "Part of the fun of vinyl is messing around with your record player, not pressing buttons. So this is something that is perhaps best left back in the 80s." Either way, I'm glad to see you still "messing around" with a variety of ways of enjoying such a great medium. :-)
Yes I change my mind as often as I change my clothes - so about twice a year. I think part of my issue with the RP114 might have been its inherent cheapness - its a really creaky plasticky piece of equipment than doesn't inspire confidence and all the fun stuff is hidden away out of sight as if they were slightly ashamed it was still a record player.
Regarding manual vs automatic turntables -- I once put on some music as I was packing to go on holiday. Enjoyed a lovely long weekend in Paris... and came back to find the record player still spinning, the stylus gradually wearing itself down on the runout groove, as it had been for four days. 🤦♀️
I can imagine doing something like this. The other day I left the hot tap on the kitchen sink running for a couple of hours. Luckily the plug wasn’t in, but the room was steamed up like a sauna.
Before this video I never realised the quality of my first turntable, a Sony model from 1980. Direct drive, strobe light, 1g force and a bonus plastic cover! Given that I was still in high school, it must have cost me a lot. But never any troubles with it.
Will you please stop putting all these delightful temptations into my head! Another great video thank you. Well thought out and reasoned. Those little feet on the cover say a lot about it. Having dipped my toe back into the vinyl pool with a Pro-ject Essential II manual (sounds plenty good enough for me) your well set out case for an auto deck will have me searching eBay again.
I only really knew how much I liked automatics after first using a manual for a year and finding the experience unsatisfactory. I’d say if you don’t currently find your turntable annoying then you should be fine.
I like that you always try to give an unbiased opinion, and as you stated this was you choice and it fit your requirements and needs,.
Another excellent and entertaining nostalgic review on something still near and dear to our hearts. Can't get closer to the physical experience of sound reproduction than this. Thanks!
I’m still fascinated how those tiny vibrations of a stylus result in stereo sound. I can read all the explanations going about how it works, as well as looking at videos of a stylus through a microscope... <a href="https://youtu.be/mYE67fVny4c" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/mYE67fVny4c</a> but it still seems more like magic.
Love the jacket!
It might be a bit OTT for this video.
You inspired me some time ago to dig my old Hitachi turntable out of the loft and get it working again, it lasted a few months before the cartridge failed and couldn't be replaced, so I went a bought an Audio Technica AT-LP60, which isn't up to your Denon but makes me happy. Nice jacket, BTW :)
As far as I know the AT-LP60 is the cheapest turntable that's worth buying. All the HiFi magazines definitely give it some respect. Its the go to model for me to recommend for anyone saying that they want to buy a proper turntable but don't want to spend a fortune.
That looks a really nice turntable, nice and chunky and I love a wood finish. Your advice about researching the cost of replacement styluses (styli?) before buying an older machine is very important. A few years ago I bought a Beogram 1700 from the early 80s and man alive, I had to sit down when I saw the cost of a new cartridge!
I was going to mention the Beograms - but I thought it better to avoid naming one particular manufacturer in case it would upset the fanboys. But I was thinking of B&O when I said it as I'd looked into a linear B&O TT a few years ago and wondered why they were all being sold without a head cartridge. When I read up on it, it seemed like people were buying the machines just to get the cartridge and then selling off the unwanted device. So the turntables were very reasonably priced, but the cartridges were horrendously expensive.
Yet another great video, thank you very much.
We have a sort of half-way house NAD turntable. It's manual, but the arm drop and lift is via a little lever which releases it to drop down in a controlled way. It's also belt driven...so to change the speed you have to physically move the belt to a different spindle. I think I'd prefer an automatic turntable.
@20:00 I was disappointed that you only alluded but did not give a more complete version of the Taken quote “What I do have are a particular set of requirements, ones that I have acquired over a very long career….. I will look for it, I will find it and I will buy it”. <a href="https://youtu.be/jZOywn1qArI?t=14" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/jZOywn1qArI?t=14</a>
It did cross my mind in editing - but I'd already used that gag in another video <a href="https://youtu.be/lk6qQz06Wtw" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/lk6qQz06Wtw</a>
Thanks again for another insightful video.
Because of you ... actually one of your videos, i bought myself a Sansui turntable about 3 years ago ( model P-D10). Still have it and listen to it ... so thanks again
Would you mind sharing the list you came up with? I’m looking for something similar to your requirements, just that I’d like to find something a tad older, perhaps late-70 looks (I’ve a Pioneer SX-850 receiver.)
Unfortunately Patreon went offline last night for maintenance preventing a reply - however I can't find my shortlist, and I've deleted the searches...but here's a few of the models I was looking at (they might not all be automatics though). JVC QL-10 JVC QL-Y5F JVC QL-Y55F JVC QL-Y66F JVC QL-Y7 Pioneer PL-570 PIONEER XL-A700 Marantz 6370q (I think this is manual)
A complex yet elegant and beautiful turntable you've got there! I owned Denon (then known as Nippon Columbia) control amp and tuner in the late 1970s. Am now enjoying a Denon DRA-365R receiver and a Denon DR-M10HR cassette deck, both picked up at thrift stores for under $10 apiece, believe it or not. The cassette deck needed belts, and the receiver just needed a cosmetic spiff-up. Your turntable makes me want to go all-Denon on the component rack!
Too bad there wasn't room for both - then you could have said you had two turntables and a microphone :P
excellent video as always. i recently (i.e. yesterday) got a new old turntable myself, a technics sl-1900. direct drive, automatic and in pretty good shape. and the surprising part about is that it has an option for 10 inch records.
Yours has one thing I would have liked - a strobe. Completely unnecessary on a quartz lock turntable, but they are something I find pleasing to look at.
Very nice video. I never had a turntable, but enjoyed this vid very much. It was strictly forbidden by my parents to own one when I was young. Reason: You could not record on records once you got tired of their content. No joke.
I remember for years people telling me that they wouldn't buy a DVD player until the recordable ones came out. When recordable DVD finally made it's way to market, no one was interested as PVRs had arrived.
Excellent points re: sound quality. The point of the exercise is to enjoy your music. Eventually, you cross a line where trying to achieve the best sound gets in the way. I'm buying a new TV and I'm not tempted in the slightest by screens that are the next step up; the "enjoying movies at home" goal is best served by taking that extra $900 and spending it on more movies, or more streaming services.
The last time I bought a TV I let the reviews convince me to go for a 65" 4K OLED. I now think that if I was replacing it I'd forgo the OLED and get a 75" - 79" 4K non-OLED. At my sitting distance I think a larger screen would probably have been more beneficial than the OLED.
A beautiful machine.
I kept waiting to see what it does with a 10" disk... I assume it would think there was a 12" in there and probably drop the stylus on the rubber mat.
That's one of those times you need to operate it manually. It would drop the stylus down at the 7" point and play it at 45rpm. However I only own one 10" disk and the RokBlok ruined it.
Aesthetically pleasing? You're allowed to mention woodgrain here ;)
It's more a combo of the wood and the silver - in a certain ratio...as well as a chunky base. Its one of those things where I know it when I see it.
Snazzy jacket!
Yes!!