Music Hall Turntable Review (Mmf-1.3: Quality At Entry Level Price

The performance of this unit combined with the price of $350 makes this turntable an absolute bargain. The first thing you need to have when playing older 78 records is a 78 rpm stylus with a diameter of 3 mil. Known to outperform MC cartridges that cost many times more. Found a lower price? I don't want to spend too much since I'm basically doing bootlegs, but I'd like a cartridge with more dynamic range than the Melody. Works with MM phono preamps. Copy editor: Dan Rubin. If you would have told me when I was unboxing it that it cost $600, not only would I have believed you, I would have been impressed they could sell it for that given the pricing of the competition. There was not much record surface noise, which I normally would expect with such an inexpensive turntable. This review originally appeared in Sound+Image magazine, one of What Hi-Fi? I found the problems of purchasing a non-functioning/non-repairable turntable off the internet the hard way. For the money, the Music Hall MMF-1.

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About the only thing that might give me pause when it comes to long-term reliability are the touch-sensitive speed buttons, but presumably the essential nature of those parts was given extra attention during R&D. The first was to find a reasonably priced turntable to review. Accurate line for perfect counterweight position. Conical stylus designed to play 78s and could insert the stylus right into the Audio Technica AT-3600L phono cartridge. ⚬ Gorgeous real cherry wood veneer, you won't be able to take your eyes off it! Tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec's brilliant "Bossa Nova, Soul Samba" LP from 1962 was where the allure of analog sound really kicked in. After I played a few records I remembered a recent Music Hall press release with a $699 price quoted somewhere. 5 is a superb turntable at the price whose performance and appearance belies that ticket... big-time.

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The motor operates with decent torque. Quebec's rounded tone and fuller sound were the sort you rarely experience with digital files. 3 turntable when I first opened the box. 3 is a great entry-level audiophile style turntable. It is a very popular cartridge, especially among those that like to listen to rock type music. 2 Hybrid headphone amp with tube preamplifier $399. Many record collectors believe belt drive motors are the only way to listen to records without excess noise. Sensitive to tonearms. MM cartridges are found on most affordable and midrange turntables. "This is my new favorite turntable under $400, and Music Hall is to be commended for bringing it to the market for such a reasonable price.

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Hipsters in particular will at least be getting a turntable that arrives correctly set up from their dealer or the factory. See the Music Hall Classic turntable at and the 3020i speakers at. Channel balance within 2. Many buyers these days think they're interchangeable like lightbulbs, so including a real-deal preamp will help prevent end users from hooking this up to one of those sad-ass $12. They can probably order the cartridge you want if it is not in stock. The only info online is for the LP-Gear Vessel A3SE, but I'm sensing this might have been hype generated by LP-Gear. 5 "Vessel Special" for $499 from LP Gear. Right after I played the Quebec LP I popped on another favorite jazz LP: Collin Walcott, Don Cherry and Nana Vasconcelos' "Codona 3" from 1982. Upgrade Kit for Music Hall MMF2.

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Stylus shape: elliptical 0. However, since it does seem optimized for the Audio-Technica sourced Spirit (as demonstrated by its inability to express the Grado's considerable virtues), you'd be wise to stick with something similar, perhaps preferably from the same maker. I'm not much of an Elvis Presley fan, but when I found an "Elvis 24 Karat Hits! " I recommend that you take a few close-up pictures of the current cartridge to be able to look back on how it was fitted and how the four color coded wires were connected. It is reported to be great on some turntables, but not on others. All Music Hall turntables come fitted with arms, cartridges and dust covers. This unit has a built-in pre-amp you can turn off or on, which is standard these days.

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Aligned and mounted Music Hall Melody ($75 value) moving magnet cartridge. High output MC cartridge. I inquired with a couple of online sources with questions and immediately replied. 5mV ± 2dB, 1kHz @ 5cm/sec. Another option is to visit your local Hi-Fi dealer. They are produced in a factory that has been making turntables for over 50 years. The included Music Hall Spirit cartridge is pre-mounted and perfectly aligned, and setup is extremely easy. The plinth (base) is extremely solid and rigid, with a satin Cherrywood finish that has lovely color and a lustrous sheen that makes you want to keep staring at it. Thorens doesn't hide that fact, nor should they. What you can't do is mash together the best attributes of other decks and preamps into any one machine. 3 with cartridge - as above but with $440. Plays 33 1/3, 45, and 78 RPM.

5 has an aluminum platter instead of the steel platter typically found on budget turntables. 5 is, the $599 Music Hall Classic is even nicer and I have praised it extensively in this column. They stock all the popular cartridges and their pricing is usually very good. This was a smart move by Music Hall. A high-quality cartridge will read the grooves more accurately and transform it from the physical format to the electrical format with higher precision. The only drawback is the platter is a little light. For shellac records (pre-1958) and a stylus with a diameter of. I did play a variety records so I could see how it compared with my other turntables.

Its arm is also not height adjustable, so I had to jettison the standard felt mat for something thinner to achieve a workable VTA. I checked the speed accuracy with my strobe and template and it was accurate. More than 15 dB at 1KHz (CD-4005). MM cartridges, on the other hand, doesn't pick up as much details as MC cartridges and are sometimes considered more pleasant to listen to and more forgiving for that reason. I was surprised to see the 78 speed. Stylus diamond stylus.

My chief complaint is that it lacks fine texture and ultimate transparency, and confines the soundstage more tightly around my JBL L100 Classic loudspeakers, whereas Pro-Ject Phono Box DS2 and Avid Pulsus standalone units opened things up substantially. It's a little gritty in operation, but the action is very smoothly damped, unlike the much more expensive Technics. The replaceable interconnects are pretty decent, the platter runs true, and the motor seems dead quiet. It's a snap to set up and comes with everything you need to start spinning vinyl. 5 easily revealed the differences between the two records. I had two turntable goals at the beginning of this year. After many more nights researching cartridges, I pulled the trigger and ordered a cartridge upgrade for my AT-LP120 too. 435(W) x 367(D) x 127(H) mm. This made swapping out the stylus easy, so that I would not have to swap phono cartridges every time I wanted to play a different record format. You also have to fit the counterweight, and adjust the tracking force to 2 grams, the recommended tracking force for the Melody cartridge, and set the anti-skating dial, which is simply a matter of turning it to the '2' calibration mark.

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 19:06:19 +0000