Price was fair. The turntable was great, while it worked, but good luck if you have trouble.

A bad connection in the tone arm and the left channel went out. I took it back to the store where I purchased it and they had trouble with the Music Hall distributor, who was too busy to deal with stores that carry his product.

If you buy this turntable, chances are you won't have any trouble. However, if something breaks you better hope you have a trustworthy store that will give you store credit because Music Hall does not have good customer support. The local shop I buy from has been repeatedly blown off by Hall himself when requesting replacement parts. Thanks to the guys at Audio Systems I will have a full credit trade in/upgrade to the Rega P2.

Similar Products Used:

Rega P2

Cheap

Can be bettered by 20 year old used equipment.

Follow up to the comments below. Sue away. Everything I said was true. My observations about the build quality of this toy TT are perfectly legal. The rumble spec you are referring to is for a MMF 2.1. The MMF 2 specifically stated in the manual that Music Hall published no rumble spec for it. The MMF 2.1 also says it has a teflon and bronze bearing. The only teflon in my MMF 2 was what I put in it. I did tell Roy Hall what I had done to it. Maybe he thougyht it was a good idea. Or maybe they just redesigned the bearing because it was lousy. The bearing in my MMF 2 was the stainless shaft of the subplatter stuck into a bronze bushing cast into a piece of plastic. The only thrust bearing ( supporting the weight of the platter) was the subplatter rubbing on the top of the "bearing" assembly. I felt ripped off as soon as I got this thing out of its box. The only reason I kept it for two years was that I spent 300 bucks on it and the audio press kept telling me how wonderful it was. The build quality is embarrassing at that price. The only reason it seems like a bargain is that many higher performance tables are very expensive. I am glad to be rid of it and have learned my lesson. Be willing to part with more than $1000 for a decent TT or buy a used one. If you are convinced that its wonderful. Bully for you. Happy listening.

Simplicity. Economy Very Cost Effecive

50 Herts motor runs HOT on USA 60 Herts. Suggest using transformer or resistor to reduce motor voltage to 90 to 100 volts for cooler operation and better reliability.

UPDATE- Music Hall MMF 2.1 Refer to m previous review on this turntable further down the list. I made reference to the Pro-Ject Debut Turntable. I returned to the UK a year later and found that a 120 V motor and 60 Hz Pulley was available for the Pro-ject Debut II Turntabe. I bought one along with the 120 V motor and the 60 Hz pulley and returned home to the USA with it. This is the same turntable as the Music Hall MMF 2.1 with a slightly lee but similar quality tone arm. An Ortofon Eliptical Stylii cartridge is included. I believe the motors in both the Pro-Ject Debut II and Music Hall MMF Turntables are 50 Hz motors. This makes them run HOT when used on USA 60HZ mains. This may be the reason some users have had motors sieze up and require lubrication. Run your motor for half an hour and feel its case. You will find it "Uncomfortably HOT ". As this is a synchronous motor, it is not dependent on mains voltage for speed accuracy. I have been using a variable autotransformer ( variac ) to reduce the voltage to about 95 volts to run my Music Hall and Project Debut II turntables. The speed is just as accurate and the motor runs at a more reasonable temperature. A small transformer could also be used. As time ermits I will try substituting the variac with a suitable resistor that can fit under the turntable for voltage reduction. The Pro-Ject Debut II Turntable at present is marketed in the UK only and sells for a mere 110 which includes the Ortofon OM5E cartridge. The price is equivalent to about $155 in US Dollars at the present exchange rate. It has recieved award winning reviews in the British Audio Press vor several years. There are several variations of the Project Debut II TT. Color plinths, plain black plinth, and one model with a built in phono stage costing a bit more. The performance is similar if not the same as the Music Hall MMF 2.1 but at half the price ! For the technically inclined owners of Music Hall turntables try running your motor at 90 to 100 volts instead of 120 volts and you most likely will never experience motor problems as described in some of the reviews here. FOr a look at the Pro-Ject Debut Turntable, check out : www.henleydesigns.co.uk

Similar Products Used:

Pro-Ject Debut II

Smooth sound. Easy set up. Fuss free.s

Soundstage could be wider, could have better definition of details especially at the frequency extremes.i

The review below by Rwortman is crap. He should be more careful because you can be sued for publishing information that is demonstrably not true. First of all, the table does have a bearing -- it is made of bronze. I can look down the bearing shaft of my table and see it. Second, Music Hall does publish rumble specs for the table, -70 db (check their website). This is not bad, certainly not a number to be ashamed of, especially for a table of its price. It''s fine to make subjective comments such as "I did not like the way this turntable sounds," but to represent something as a fact that is blatantly not true is libel whether you are posting on the Internet or in a newspaper. If I were Roy Hall (US importer) I would sue Rwortman. Okay now that we have the facts straight let me say that this is a very good turntable, probably the cheapest route into the land of audiophile quality turntables. A more expensive table will likely buy you better sound, but this is a very good start. My only complaint about the turntable is that the Goldring cartridge that comes with the table is really not good enough to do the table justice. I replaced it with a Grado Red, which is a much more synergistic match. The result is a smooth natural sound with no obvious deficiencies. If you listen to a more expensive table you will notice a wider soundstage, and more precise imaging. The Music Hall is very good for the money. a

Similar Products Used:

Many.f

Sounds nice at low levels. Cheap $$$$ Decent arm.

Crap platter bearing. Noisy

If you have to have a turntable for less than $300 and it HAS to be new then here it is. The good news is that it sounds pretty good as long as you keep the volume low. It responds well to cartridge upgrades. I was using an AT ML150 on mine until I sold it. Bad news is that the heart of a TT is it''s platter bearing and this one doesn''t really have one. Just a brass bushing cast into a piece of plastic that the subplatter rides on. Mine squeeked when spinning right out of the box. I put a teflon button down the bearing hole to give it a thrust bearing surface and it was much better. Still noisy and rumbly at high volumes. They don''t publish a rumble spec. Probably would blush with embarrassment if anyone measured it. If you don''t mind futzing about with used gear there are MUCH better tables available on EBay for between $200 and $350. Thorens TD160,165,166,124 etc and the higher end manual Dual''s are real turntables with real platter bearings and suspensions. I bought a used Dual CS5000 that absolutely blows this thing away.

Similar Products Used:

Dual CS5000; Denon DP37F, Rotel RP1000

Obvious strength is the value for the dollar, but beyond that this unit really produces a solid soundstage without disturbing noise. No rumble or other dirt to cloud the music.

The Elan cartridge is a toy. Go ahead and put a decent MM on the arm as soon as you unpack the ''table. I bought a Grado Prestige Red which sounds good, although it picks up a slight hum from the drive motor. The arm is pretty cheesy, but surprisingly functional once you get it set up with the cartridge. The Grado is fairly tall and I really had to raise the arm to get the VTA right, so much so that I have to shim the lid hinges so that I can close the lid while playing a record.

There are alot of you out there who, like me, still have great vinyl in our collections and limited budgets for analog playback rigs. This is a great way to get back into vinyl and enjoy solid sound quality without spending a bundle. If I had it to do again I might consider the 5.0 version for the better platter and base, but the 2.1 will serve very well for now.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DP-60

Cost Effective, Simplicity, up-gradable factory installed cartridge. ( upgrades to eliptical with stylus change )

none for something in this price range

While vacationing in the UK I found a low cost turntable that was recieving rave reviews in the UK Audio Press. This was the Pro-Ject " Debut " model and was selling for the equivalent of about $160 complete with an Ortofon Cartridge. I would have bought one if it had been equipped with a DC motor but unfortunately it had an AC Synchronous motor dependent of 50 Hz for proper speed.After futher investigating Pro-Ject who manufactures Turntables in the Chec Republic I checked out some of their other models as well and found some being sold in the USA but not the Debut model. I remembered seeing a Music Hall Turntable at a local dealer about a year ago and went back for another look. Sure enough some of the same component parts of the Music Hall appeared similar or identical to component parts on the Pro-Ject turntables I had seen in the UK. My opinion is that the Music Hall model 2.1 contains the motor and drive system as used in the Pro-ject Debut model and the ( better ) tone arm as used on the Pro-Ject model .5 with all components being mounted on a customised and very nice quality plinth ( base ) with detatcable dust cover being sold in the USA under the name Music Hall. Although this unit is manufactured in the Chec Republic some of the design originated in the UK according to some of the research I have done on both Pro-Ject and Music Hall model 2.1 .

My unit was equipped with a Goldring Elan Cartridge with a .6 mil conical stylus. I have always used conical stylii except they are all .7 mil. More on this later.

Setup of the unit was fairly simple & straight forward and the instruction manual is very user friendly for anyone familiar with Turntables & Record Changers. I did have to use a magnifying glass to get the clear piece of line connecting the anti-skate weight to the proper detent on the back of the tone arm but that is not a fault of the unit.

After adjusting & calibrating the tone arm counterbalance twice, I checked the stylus pressure with a calibrated neuses type tone arm scale and the readings were very close.

I checked the cartridge allignent with a Geo Disc which indicated acceptable positioning of the cartridge as far as I can tell.

Turntable speed was checked with a Stroboscopic Disc with the motor at room temperature and monitored for 3 minutes. The motor was left running and checked again after 30 minutes with no detectable change in speed. According to the strobe disc the speed was acceptably accurate at both 33&1/3 and 45 RPM.

Belt tracking on the beveled motor pully was acceptable as the belt edge was not rubbing on the pully flanges. This was checked at both speeds.

The Cuing system was checked for rate of decent at the lead in section of a 12 inch record and was found to be favorable. Not too fast and not too slow as to partially engage at stylus set down as is sometimes the case on other makes 7 models.

With the stylus pressure & anti skate set per the instructions for the Goldring Elan cartridge played several of my reference records of both 7 inch 45 RPM & 12 inch 33&1/3 rpm speeds. Noticable distortion appeared in the nid range frequencies especially on vocals. I checked all of the tone arm set up adjustments again. They were as specified in the instruction manual.

I phoned the Goldring Company in England to obtain specs. on the Elan Cartridge and they confirmed that the Elan stylii was a .6 mil conical. When I explained that I had always used .7 mil conical stylii and the problem I was having with the Elan stylii they suggested I change to the stylus for the Goldring Electra cartridge which is the same cartridge with an Eliptical Stylii.

I bought the Electra stylii and that took care of the mild distortion making the Music Hall MMF 2.1 turntable a fine piece of equipment at a very affordable price.

I find the felt turntable matt to be a refreshing alternative to the composition or rubber type matts that have been used for so many years.

A note on replacement stylii. The whole Turntable / Cartridge / Stylii market seems to be different now than it was when " Vinyl" was the only game in town. Some dealers & suppliers are less knowledgable than those of the past. Printed spec. sheets are not always included. I found prices for stylii all over the place, some of which I feel were rather exhorbitant. I was able to purchase the Goldring Electra Stylii for about half of what some dealers were asking for it, and yes, that is for original Goldring, not a no-name or aftermarket replacement stylii.

using the Music Hall MMF 2.1 Turntable is an absolute pleasure and I am very pleased with the sound quality from the Goldring Cartridge it came with, once I installed the Electra, eliptical stylus.

An additional nice feature is a spare drive belt included with the turntable at no additional cost. I look forward to many enjoyable hours of use from this unit.

end review Music Hall 2.1 Turntable

Similar Products Used:

Dual CS 5000, Thorens TD185NR , Dual 1019,
Benjamin Miracord 10H, Garrard AT60

Price

Quality

The last couple of years I owned a Thornes TD-166 an top of the line Denon table. I have to say this one blows them away. Cartridge replacement is a must!

Similar Products Used:

Thornes,Denon

see earlier review

see earlier review

Thought you should know, since my earlier review, I gave shaft of my frozen motor a small shot of WD 40--and it started to spin again at full and consistent speed (as demonstrated by good piano decay, etc). After a few more hours of running, I plan to apply one very small drop of Singer Sewing Machine oil for a longer lasting solution (no pun intended). The owners manual is silent about either lubed for life or periodic maintenance. I am guessing my unit had insufficient factory lubrication or had less than perfect bearing surfaces-but with follow up lubrication, motor runs properly.
I did have minor treatable mechanical problems ( the frozen motor and falling off headshell),but was able to remedy them myself. Therefore, I upgrade my rating.

Similar Products Used:

dual, garrard

price, build quality, sound

cartridge, for someone new to vinyl, setup can be rather difficult. The "manuel", all one page of it, was very incomplete.

I'm new to vinyl, but after this short introduction, I'm sold on it. My dad had a bunch of old records that were just sitting around collecting dust. The records were all from bands I love (rolling stones, santana, jackson browne, etc.), so I figured why not buy a record player. I decided on the music-hall because it seemed to be the best entry into audio-phile quality turntables. I have no doubt now that I made the right decision. Vinyl on this player sounds spectacular. I've listened to these songs thousands of times before on CD, but never have they come to life like they did on vinyl. The first time I played "Wild Horses" my skin tingled. The distance and coldness of a CD was gone, replaced by a sound that was rich, warm, and full. Because I'm new to vinyl, I don't know if the music-hall is the best player out there. I've read that the cartridge is a weak spot, but my ears didn't hear any flaws. If this is true, I suppose the sound can only get better, which is good for me. I guess all I wish to say in this review is that to those that are new to vinyl, don't be put off by it's complexities. It's worth the investment, and the music-hall is most definitely an excellent introductory piece at a great price.

System:
B&W CM4's (L/R)
B&W CM2's (LS/RS)
B&W CMC (C)
B&W LM1's (LBS/RBS)
Reciever: Denon AVR-3801
Speaker Wire: Audioquest Slate (F/R/C)
Audioquest F-22 (LS/RS)
Monster XP (LBS/RBS)
CD Player: Denon DVC-370
Various other unrelated components (DVD, VCR, ETC.)