Welcome Mark. I have a non-working PL-L1000 stashed away in a closet. I am half-heartedly making inquiries into getting it repaired. What is your impression of of the PL-L1000?
I got hooked on the thing back in 1985- but it was the Phase Linear 8000 Series II. I bought a Micro Acoustics MA2002 cart and an Ortofon Concorde 20 to go with it. The MA cart was astounding, I heard things in records that I never heard before.
The PL-L1000 wasn't sold in the US except as the 8000/II, the PL-1000A and the PL-L800 had a US market.
Honestly- I love the sucker! Rock solid speed, low noise / rumble. The arm "catch up" is pretty fast: if you move the headshell manually the carriage is quick to follow, so the controversy about "micro-arc" mistracking is a bucket of crap (of course, this is my opinion). I'm one of those who drank the linear tracking flavored Kool-Aid. I just like it: no arm offsets to worry about with alignment. Only two settings: zero overhang and VTA. Also- get a GOOD level- it will operate a bit better, but put the level on the rear carriage rails- not the platter.
One warning: DO NOT allow the platter motor to start without the platter in place
and screwed down. The electronics don't like that and it ruins the PLL speed lock.
I had a Pioneer monster AV system once, surround amp, LaserVision video, double auto-reverse cassete, 25" CRT, and a linear-tracking table that would find the tracks on an album by the flat "land" divisions. You could also program a sequence of tracks. It was the pinnacle of home entertainment tech at the time, but way to gadgety and didn't sound all that great. The high point of the system was the LaserVision player that not only played video discs, but audio compact discs as well.
My only other linear tracking experiences were the Harman/Kardon ST-(4-8), the Pioneer is a much better system, though I liked the process of the mechanical roller system of the Rabco arm- seemed to be less prone to breakdown, but much more "fiddly" to get working properly. I had the ST-8 back in the '80s, had an ST-7 about five years ago, ended up giving both away.
