Sonically this is perhaps the best Rek O Kut on the planet. It has a silicon nitride ball bearing and an Applied Fidelity ceramic thrust plate. This bearing upgrade is a profound improvement over the already great sounding bearing. Also, the platter was upgraded with an Applied Fidelity delrin platter mat. This is about the quietest idler drive record player you will ever hear, but retains all the idler dynamics, finesse and utterly engaging sound reproduction. Further, I fully serviced the motor and it is good for another 50 years. I opened it up and striped the shaft of the 50 year old lubricant that had turned to varnish and replaced it with new lubricant. This is a self lubricating motor so it will not require any further service for decades. You will not find another Rek O Kut for sale with this level of motor maintenance. The sound have everything you want. Very dark and quiet backgrounds ESPECIALLY for an idler. Very dynamic with exceptionally good articulation particularly in the base. Very detailed with surreal transients and ethereal sparkle at the top end. Tons of flesh on the bones. The tonal colors are rich and full bodied. You can tell the difference between a euphonium and a trombone clearly for example. Unless you have a budget in the multi-thousands you will be very hard pressed to get a record player that sounds better. The plinth is 6 layer CLD custom plinth using 3/4" MDF and Birch plywood. I never tried to make it esthetically pleasing, I just stained it a dark mahogany. You will likely need to paint it or add a veneer if you want a visually attractive plinth, but the hard work of making it is already done. It looks fine to me, perhaps it does to you as well. I liked the functional look of these old tables so I didn't make much effort to make it look modern. I am selling as a general purge that I've been undertaking for the last couple months. I've got too much gear and made some big purchases recently. As far as the sound, I'll put it this way: I had a VPI Traveler, a hotroded Technics 1200 with lots of upgrades and this Rek O Kut. I decided to consolidate and bought a VPI Prime. I decided to keep one table in case the Prime didn't live up to its price tag. The proof is in the pudding and I sold the Traveler and Technics before I bought the Prime. The Prime came through so I have to sell the Rek O Kut too. I like the Prime better but it costs 4X what I am asking for the Rek. The Syntec S-220 is an astonishingly good tonearm that was largely used by radio stations in the 60s-80s. I read that it is actually an AT-1005 MkI. I don't know if that is true but it is what I heard from folks in the know. You only ever see the MkII, so it makes sense that the MkI would have been used for broadcast purposes. It was a light mass arm for the 60s but by today's standards is it medium to medium/heavy. It will work great with most carts but I would avoid high compliance carts. I've had a SDC XLM MKII and it sounded fine. The Denon 103 just sings on this arm! I have two sets of RCA interconnects because I had a Syntec before that did not survive a move. The cable is fine but the tonearm had to be thrown away. So I kept the cables and bought a second arm. This is a turn key record player that will perform wildly better than the price I am asking would suggest. It is not a ridiculous statement to suggest this is the best sounding Rek O Kut record player in the world. I know of no other L-34s that have had these upgrades and have been serviced as well. This is a unique opportunity! I am rating it a 7/10. I don't know if that is conservative or generous. Functionally it is perfect. Cosmetically I never cared so never put any effort. If you want a cosmetically stunning record player you will need to put some work into it. By that I mean paint or veneer on the plinth etc... If you don't care like me then like I said it is turn key.
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