('75-'83)  $700

Obtained locally from the original owner, this beautiful Rega Planar 2 is in pristine cosmetic and operating condition. 

The presence of the spectacular, completely redesigned Rega RB220 tonearm on the Planar 2 was a major draw when first released.  The arm is even better with the included brand new Ortofon Red cartridge & stylus. The plinth sits in a beautiful wooden base supporting the turntable.

Drive is via a compliantly mounted AC Synchronous motor with simple phase shift power supply, through an O-ring type belt (the belt is relatively new).

The top platter is a stunning and highly precise *float glass platter.  Instead of a mat that would cover the beautiful glass platter, records placed on the platter will sit on unique and tiny flexi-foam pads.  These unique pads will support the record for either standard 12" LP, 10" EP or 7" 45's.  The glass platter sits on a plastic sub platter.  The dark tinted acrylic dust cover and original hinges are perfect.
*NOTE: Float glass is a sheet of glass made by floating molten glass on a bed of molten tin due to its low melting point. This method gives the sheet uniform thickness and a very flat surface.


The Rega Planar 2 back story:

In 1976, three years after Rega’s creation, the Planar 2 launched as one of the brand's very first turntables. Its S-shaped tonearm was then replaced in 1984 with Rega’s RB250, and at the turn of the century a brand new version of the deck (fittingly named the P2 2000) took its place in Rega’s catalog until 2005.  And the beat goes on...

About Rega...
Rega was founded in 1973. The company's name was formed from the initials of its two founders (RElph & GAndy). Rega are widely known for their turntables – most notably the iconic Rega Planar 3 cartridges and tonearms, and have produced award-winning amplification and speakers for many years.  In addition to manufacturing products under their own brand name, they have also served as an OEM of turntables and tonearms for other companies such as NAD & Rotel.

Rega Research is imported and distributed in the US by The Sound Organisation, based in Arlington Texas.

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(1979)  $450  (pristine full auto, quartz-locked, direct-drive)

In perfect cosmetic and working condition, this great looking, unique Realistic Lab 500 turntable was the top of the line at the end of the 70's.  It was made in *Japan for Radio Shack (Tandy Corporation).  It is, without any doubt, one of the top two of the finest turntables they ever sold (the other being the Lab 400)...
Essentially (in our humble opinion) the Lab 500 is absolutely one of the best of the high quality, superb tables to come out of the Orient during the "Golden Age of HiFi".  

The Lab 500 was a custom design by Tandy Corp but was actually built by Mitsubishi of Japan using Tandy's specs.  This beauty is a direct drive, fully automatic, quartz locked, 2-speed turntable with a repeat function.  All the controls are on the front so, even with the dust cover lowered, it's very simple to operate.  

Most of the LAB-500's functions are electronically controlled which ultimately means fewer mechanical parts to break down or wear out.  The superb motor is a 12 pole brushless dc servo type that maintains constant speed under any potential voltage fluctuations.The platter design visually appears to make the platter look smaller in height than most, yet it's heavier, thicker and wider than most at the same time.  It's also a great looking turntable.  The design features lots of wood veneer and stunning heavy brushed aluminum.  We've had a few of these over the years and believe it to be one of the most beautiful of all.

Mounted on the original integrated headshell (designed specifically for the Lab-500) is a pristine Shure/Realistic R9000e LWS cartridge and new (correct) replacement for the N95e stylus.  The cartridge is basically the same as the famous Shure M95ED.
NOTE: The Shure M95ED was a high dollar cartridge back in the day.  There were several editions with similar specs, most still putting a squeeze on the wallet.

The S-shaped tonearm keeps the stylus of the cartridge perpendicular to the radius of the groove over the full surface of the record, which means low distortion and excellent tracking at less than 1-1/2 grams

This Lab-500 comes with a new acrylic dust cover and custom fully adjustable chrome feet with anti-resonant pads.

*Note:
Besides the fact that the Lab 500 was built by Mitsubishi, in most cases, the majority of Realistic turntables were manufactured by C.E.C. (Chuo Denki who still exists today.)  It wasn't just Radio Shack but many other well known names like Hitachi, Marantz, Sanyo, Toshiba, etc had lots of equipment manufactured by Japanese OEM companies such as Foster/Fostex and NEC, Mitsubishi, Hitachi and C.E.C..

About Realistic/Optimus/Radio Shack/Tandy Corp...
Realistic branded vintage stereo gear is all over the place. Some of it is right up there in quality with the best of Pioneer, Sansui, etc. Also, some of it is just...ok. Their best era was during the 70's when they successfully competed head-to-head with all the big names in high fidelity. They sourced practically all their products from Japan and sometimes had the exact same components inside their gear as the competition but at a much lower price.

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(Denmark, '86-'88)  $400

This rare Luxman P-100 is a fully automatic, belt-drive beauty...it's in excellent cosmetic and operating condition. The motor is servo-driven.

Like other companies with a reputation for producing "audiophile-level" HiFi gear, Luxman faced stiff competition from Japan during the frenzied 80's.  Reluctantly, they decided to figure out a way to keep the "lux" in luxurious without the usual high price associated with Luxman branded components.  The P-100 was one of the designs they managed to pull off.  Fortunately, it was quite successful in both Europe and North America.  The exterior build quality is more mid-fi but the inner working and reliability are pure Luxman.

Essentially, the P-100 is a simple and elegant design with superb tracking and flawless fully automatic operation. It has a switch on the underside to turn off the auto cue function which allows manual operation if so desired.

Extras include a new "Corkey" (cork/rubber composite) anti-resonant platter mat and real mahogany veneer side panels.

The original headshell comes mounted with an excellent Empire 999Ve cartridge and gently used 232-SDE stylus.  Viewed through a jeweler's loupe there's negligible wear on the stylus, the tip is like new actually.

As with all Luxman designed turntables, the P-100 (as mentioned above) is very reliable. At about 12 lbs, it's much heavier than you would expect for a belt-drive unit.  It feels solid and operates with the simple touch of a button;  you never have to touch the tonearm.

Specs:
Drive: Belt Drive
Motor: DC
Control: Servo
Rumble: -72dB
Wow and Flutter: 0.06% wrms
Dimensions: 16.3"W x 4.75"H x 15"D
Weight: 12 lbs

About Luxman...(from Luxman;s home page)
The history of the Luxman audio brand began in 1925, at the birth of radio broadcasting.  They paid particular attention to the world of audio and gained a high reputation as a quality brand of high-end audio products both domestically and internationally.

People tend to open their mind to natural things and react negatively to the unnatural. Natural sound, without coloration, develops an intimacy between the music and the listener; naturally and purely reproduced music resonates with the listener’s imagination. 

Luxman reflected this effect in their product development; music that features a performer's true passion and which a recording engineer has worked on precisely benefits from the fine nuances in sound which they aimed to reproduce, conveying the spirit of the artist and the enthusiasm of the performance. They strove to bring to the listener the experience of unlimited, pure music because composers, performers and recording engineers have poured their true feelings into our favorite pieces of music. Luxman would only be satisfied if the listener could experience those same passions through their products. They continue to discover new excitement through wonderful music and to continue to share that pleasure with everyone.

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(1980)  $350

In excellent cosmetic condition, fully serviced and fully operational, this Philips AF-829 turntable was the top of the line in 1980 from Philips North America division referred to as "HiFi International".

The linear, low mass tonearm comes with a new Ortofon Omega cartridge and stylus.  One of the very best features on this table is the built-in weight scale that accurately lets you know how many grams of weight the stylus is tracking with.  The quartz lock display is measured with red LEDs on the front panel and all the controls are pressure touch buttons.

The AF829 turntable is front operated, direct control, and fully automatic. Their direct control was a new system combining the advantages of measuring the actual speed at the turntable and the well-known advantages of belt drive, in combination with the subchassis  principle used in earlier Philips turntables. 

The major achievement was bringing the specs to the level of direct drive, but without the inherent problems of direct drive which requires extremely fine construction to avoid rumble, suppress microphony, and decrease sensitivity to shocks. 

Tech info:
The direct control begins rotating the motor at 33 or 45 RPM, as selected. The belt transfers the rotation to the turntable. The speed of the turntable is continuously sensed by the tacho-generator and converted into a voltage, the output of which is fed into the control unit where this voltage is compared to a reference voltage. The resulting difference voltage is used as a control signal to adjust motor speed. Thus in this system all external influences are compensated, including changes in tracking force, different record weights, use of a dust bug, changes in environmental temperatures and relative humidity, mains voltage, and frequency fluctuations. 

Features:
~free-floating sub-chassis
~low torsion tonearm
~tachometer
~speed regulation
~CMOS memories (CMOS, which stands for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, is utilized for designing integrated circuits. This technology finds applications in microprocessors, static RAM, digital logic circuits, and microcontrollers.  The main purpose of CMOS in a turntable is to store important automatic system configuration.)

Specs:
System:  Direct Control
Operations:  Fully automatic
Speeds:  3.33 and 45 rpm
Wow and Flutter : less than 0,025 (WRMS)
Rumble:  less than 73 dB (DIN B)
Tonearm Type:  Linear
Tracking Error:  less than 0°9' /cm
Dimensions: 18"W x 6.5"H x 14.4"D

About Philips North America...
Gerard Philips introduced Philips & Co. in 1891 in Eindhoven, Holland. Anton Philips, Gerard's brother, joined him to help create a prospering company. By the 1900s, the company became Europe's third largest light-bulb manufacturer. The company began constructing plants abroad by the 1930s, including Philips Electronics North America (known then as North American Philips).  Televisions and appliances were added to the company's production lines in the 1950s. Two years later, the company signed an agreement with Matsushita Electronics for technology-licensing operations. Philips began producing the audiocassette, the VCR, and laser disc technology by the 1960s. In 1974, North American Philips purchased Magnavox as well as a small interest in Grundig, a German electronics company, in 1979. GTE Television was purchased by North American Philips in 1981, followed by the purchase of Westinghouse's lighting business in 1983.  Due to slow computer sales, the company sold its Magnavox Electronics Systems unit in the 1990s. The company also sold its interests in Whirlpool and Matsushita Electronics, and in 1997, Grundig. In 1996, Philips and Sony announced plans for a joint effort to license digital video disk (DVD) technology.

About Philips High Fidelity International...
Philips goes way back to the late 1800's and has always been a respected name in Europe and the Netherlands.  Their early development of loudspeaker technology pushed them into the high end section of audio.  A little known fact: They also invented and developed the cassette tape among other things.  Before they became well known in America, they were a leading maker of turntables, speakers and higher end electronics all over the rest of the world.  When they moved into the North American market in 1974 and purchased Magnavox, they dropped the "High Fidelity International" and became "Philips" and/or "Philips Laboratories". 

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