Direct Drive TT...vintage era....sleepers....

The Technics tables have already been "discovered", but like others have said, I would look for the better Pioneer, Kenwood, Victor, Sony, and Denon tables. IMO, they are all "sleepers" and still quite affordable. (Well, maybe the Sony and Denon products have already been recognized for their performance and are priced accordingly.) The Vintage Knob website could give you some hints at what models to look for. Plus, T_bone knows them all. I particularly like the looks and build quality of the Pioneer dd tables.

Dear phasecorrect: I owned ( now is with my brother. ) the Pionner PL-630 and I can tell you I miss it.

It is very good and comes with very nice tonearm with a magnesium headshell that is very good too.

Here you have two options on it:

http://www.audioscope.net/pioneer-pl630-full-automatic-turntable-p-1296.html

http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-99395996-bandeja-giradiscos-pioneer-pl-630-_JM
this one is on Mexican Pesos ( I think ) that are around 200.00 dollars.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Hi fellows, would the Micro Seiki DD 40 tt with the MA 505 arm fit into the recommended DD TT group as mentioned above?
Violin

Back in 1976 I bought a Hitachi P38, and it had great synergy with the top end Grado cartridge of the day (Z1+ or something like that), which today would be represented by the Grado Gold. This modest Hitachi had (with the Grado) amazing imaging and soundstage for the time, and also a great sense of pace and timing.

As much as I like my very tweaked up Technics SL1210 M5G, I haven't been able to get tbe wide soundstage and holographic imaging that the Hitachi had right out of the box--as I remember it.

Johnnyb53,
A few months ago I purchased an SL1210 M5G in order to use my moving magnet cartridges more easily. It became a major PITA mounting and dismounting these cartridges on my more expensive fixed headshell tonearms.

In any case it's a very good table but the arm is simply average even with the KAB tweaks. Sadly it will never be anything more so relax and enjoy the music.

However, I love the 60 second cartridge changes. :-)