Music Hall MMF 7 Turntable

by Music Hall

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 13 x 18 x 5.5 inches ; 27 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 30 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000KOHTZA
• Item model number: MMF7
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #205,302 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 12, 2006

Product Description

The music hall mmf-7 turntable is a 2-speed belt driven audiophile turntable employing the unique dual-plinth construction originated by music hall. The distinctive design isolates the critical sound reproducing components; platter, main bearing, tone arm, and cartridge on the top platform from the adjustable tip-toe feet which are mounted on the bottom platform. The motor, switch, and wiring are isolated on their own platform and completely decoupled from the turntable. Four Sorbothane hemispheres separate the two platforms and provide additional vibration damping. The mmf-7 comes in a high-gloss, piano black lacquer finish and comes with with high quality cartridge. Features: ? music hall's unique dual-plinth construction ? One piece alloy tone arm with flexible internal wire drawn from high purity copper ? Counterweight's center of gravity is level with the stylus tip is decoupled from the arm and acts as a resonance damper ? Completely isolated/decoupled AC motor with two-speed (33/45rpm) pulley set in the front left corner of the turntable thus eliminating all vibration from the belt to the cartridge ? Optional Goldring Eroica H ($400 value) high-output moving-coil cartridge with Gyger II line contact stylus. The cartridge supplied is properly aligned and mounted ? Precision stainless steel main bearing sheathed in Teflon for noise-free fluid operation ? Non-resonant acrylic platter with metal screw-on record clamp and soft felt mat ? High quality gold RCA connectors with detachable phono cable ? Adjustable tip-toe feet with anti-scratch cups ? Low noise fully manual belt-drive design ? Dust cover, 45rpm adaptor, and spirit level ? Excellent instruction manual and easy assembly "For many vinyl fans, the MMF-7 will be a great place to end up. It was that good. Roy Hall has painted his masterpiece!" - Michael Fremer, Steophile Magazine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Audiophile class for a reasonable price, February 25, 2008

By 

Jackie Caynon (Norfolk, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music Hall MMF 7 Turntable (Electronics)

The Music Hall MMF-7 is a fantastic turntable for the money if you set it up properly. It is a popular turntable, at least in the realms of audio lovers, and can be found online in a variety of places. With the right system, this turntable will easily outperform even very expensive audiophile CD players in sound quality; however, to achieve this kind of performance one must put up with the hassle of dealing with analog, such as cleaning records, cleaning your stylus, and getting up to change the record when playback on one side is done.

If the above requirements haven't made you decide that analog isn't your forte then here are my recommendations for making this deck a world class turntable. It goes without saying that you should purchase a good record cleaning machine. You can find some manual ones with vacuum cleaners that will do the job. Also purchase good record cleaning fluid for your use with the machine.

When you buy the turntable also purchase the Anniversary Ringmat and the Pro-ject Speed Box II. Both of these items are a little more than a hundred dollars each but the improvement you'll get in sound quality make them worth it. The Ringmat will improve the bass performance of your turntable and the Speed Box will lower the noise floor of your records. The Speed Box will also allow you to change playback speed at the push of a button so you won't have to move the belt from one pulley to another.

For a cartridge, I would replace the Goldring cartridge that comes with the turntable or order a turntable sans cartridge and buy the Goldnote Boboli MK II (an Italian cartridge marketed by Koetsu) for $695. This cartridge is a high output moving coil that has excellent tonal quality across the spectrum and fantastic bass. It is, by far, the best cartridge under $1000 and I highly recommend it. Also, if you need a phono pre-amp (or phono stage), I would recommend the Graham Slee Era Gold V. This phono stage is highly rated and sounds wonderful. It does have a long break-in period, so be prepared for that.

To finish out your setup, find a good isolation platform made from MDF with sorbothane feet, get granite tile (you can find separate 12x12 tiles at Home Depot or Lowes) have the tile cut to size, and place the tile on your cabinet or rack then the isolation platform on top of the tile followed by the turntable on top of the platform. Ouila! You'll have an excellent analog playback system for a reasonable amount of money. It isn't cheap and if you don't listen to a lot of live performances, it may not be worth the trouble for you to spend the requisite amount of money on a good turntable and its support system. However, if you do like good music and have the system (an amplifier and speakers) to produce it, this turntable is a great buy.

1.0 out of 5 stars A dissapointing piece of audio hype, do not buy!, January 15, 2012

By 

C. A. Tharp (New Orleans, LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music Hall MMF 7 Turntable (Electronics)

I've had this turntable for some years now and it's about to go on ebay for whatever I can get for it. It came with the over priced Goldring Eroica, which is only an OK cartridge, but in fairness, hard to really evaluate given the shoddy design and execution of the table. The first big problem I encountered about a year after purchase was a VERY audible speed flutter, which when I examined the belt/moter system was due to an obviously visible wobble on the motor pully and shaft. When I took the belt off, I could clearly tell that the pully was no longer attached to the shaft of the motor and was only driving the table from the tension of the belt and downward pressure of the spring and circlip assembly! (I could physically rock the pully on the shaft with my fingers!) I wrote to the company and did get a prompt reply, advising me to remove the circlip holding down the pully, and super glue the pully to the shaft of the motor! This seemed a less than adequate solution to an inferior machining fit! Super glue? I followed their instructions, and it improved the wobble but it still doesn't sound right to me; the motor may be as steady as the atomic clock, but if the interface between the motor shaft and pully has to be held together with super glue, it can't be right. I've had to re-glue it a couple of times when it's come loose again..

In addition, and for me most importantly, it has been plagued from the get go from low end feedback through the floor of my listening room when played at anything more than medium volume. I've not made any elaborate isolation arrangements, but for $1500 I would think I should be able to play one of my pristine jazz records at more than a background level before the whole bass breaks up in a big rumble of feedback! I've tried various foam and foot isolation treatments to no avail whatsoever.

What finally convinced me to jetison this piece of crap was when a friend asked me to refit his old AR XA turntable with a new cartridge. I hooked it up to my system to check it, and even with the relatively cheap AT cartridge I had installed, it sounded SO much more focused, with lively transient and bass/low mid responsiveness than my Music Hall I just let go of my denial that I had utterly wasted my money.

There are yet further issues, but I think you get the picture.. do not buy!