I don't know if I should laugh or cry...

I am no expert on B&0 and stuff but you can get Linn LP12's for this money!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3034422152&category=3283

I bet my project debut II can match the performance this one! And £650 buy it now!

Maybe I was wrong about my debut matching it! But even so £600 for that!

 

I remember that one coming out, AT. That's the tangential tracker, and at the time it was very highly rated. I did ogle it at the time, but B&O prices in Oz were out of reach of the masses. I remember it being nicely made (and, being B&O, looking very stylish).

P.S. No, I wouldn't pay £650 for it.

P.P.S. Just checked out of curiosity. When they stopped producing the things in 1991, it cost £360 in the UK! As Zanash says below, it must be considered a collector's item.

 

There was oe of those in cash converter the other week and they wanted £30. I thought that was a bit steep !

Its because they have the looks, and they wern't that bad a sound, sort of Dual cs505 quality.

Must be considered collectors items now I suppose.

 

Says the stylus is worth £150 alone on there. That true?

 

Well I have an Ortofon Super OM10 cartridge which has an RRP price of £50 but in reality it will only fetch £25 max on ebay. So I am guessing the £150 is a bit over the top.

Also that B&0 seems to be linear tracking. Am I right in thinking a tradional arm is better?

I have had a few 1980'S cheap plastic linear tracking ones and they sounded nasty, and they never tracked the record properly.

 

Actually the price is about right. The B&O has its own custom carts, nothing on earth would fit onthe arm as its like a pipe cleaner.

 

So its only worth £150 because the arm is rare rather than its a really good cartridge?

 

In theory, the tangential tracker should be better, as it tracks the way records are cut - the cutting lathe moves tangentially. The pivoted arm is always a compromise. However, it depends on the design and the execution. The Rockport Sirius III uses a tangential tracker and turntables apparently don't come any better than that. I remember the B&O device being quite favourably reviewed at the time, but that was over 20 years ago and things have changed.

 

It would seem £257 was not enough for the seller. I don't think I've ever heard one, although when I was a lad the "high-end" shop in Oxford was a B&O dealer, and their parallel trackers were considered the bees bendy bits. As a spotty teenager I may have set foot inside the shop once, but the withering stares from the assistants (I clearly didn't have enough cash even to step over the threshold) sent me scurrying toot-sweet () back to Laskys!

 

His feedback is also the worst I have ever seen on ebay at 87%

 

nope, the feedback rating is 87. The % of positive is 96.8%

 

...and in addition to this, B&O now neither no longer manufacture nor keep any reserve stocks of carts for their out of production t/t's, IIRC.

There are however stocks of various B&O carts which have all been snapped up by 3rd party suppliers and retailers. Now as you can imagine, due to the scarcity of those spare parts, these suppiers are going to charge you a premium for the privillage should you be desperate enough to buy B&O (either brand new or second-hand , IMHO).