Turntable Wars- Reviewers take sides

Schubert: 

johhnyb53, maybe but you forgot that mandatory $10,000 cartridge!

Not really. After all, $40K total is still in the mid-pack new automobile range, and a lot less than $150K plus that same 5-figure cartridge.

Back in the day, HP routinely had lots of unobtainium gear with which to play and on which he leaked incomplete reports now and then

I think they were the good old days when TAS had no Ads Lew....
The commercial situation I think has changed since then...😢

I've had my Grand Prix Monaco turntable now for over 7 years.   And my Nagra VPS phono stage.   Lot of other stuff changes in my system...but those two pieces never seem to.

I have no interest in audio critics who tote ridiculously priced top end audio jewelry

shouldn't their job be finding the stellar equipment that hits the point of price versus diminishing returns?

those pieces are only sold to a few audio extremists

giving a reviewer one in hopes he is enamored with it and shouts it from the rooftops is sad, and doesn't uplight our audio community

They can take sides all they want and they can BS all they want, it is all meaningless.  PB and JV have never had a VPI Direct Drive in house with the same cartridge on both tables, plus the tables must be on the same stand.  MF had his Caliburn on a $25,000 isolation platform and the VPI DD was on whatever was there and it still was just as good, I was there I heard the comparison.  These reviewers build up friendships and the only way to keep getting new and more expensive gear to listen to, gear they could never afford at retail, is to kiss there asses.

I know exactly how much it costs to make a turntable so these numbers are beyond stupid for the performance received.

I remember HP having the Clearaudio on its 700 pound seismic stand and the Classic 4 on a piece of 3/4" plywood and it really, really, sounded so close it was ridiculous.

They don't want you to know that the VPI DD is more accurate in all ways because then it makes these uber expensive decks a moronic choice.  This is the list of things a table has to do:
1- Start and run (I was at HP's house over and over, we were good friends, and most of the time these super decks were not running)
2- Run at the right speed with no wow or flutter (The VPI DD has 1/3 the speed error of the Caliburn and probably the rest of these belt drives and I could write a book about all the other super tables I have heard running at the wrong speed)
3- Still be made and have a warrantee
4- Deliver the smoothness and dynamic range of a reel to reel tape (No problem, I have over 500 reel to reels and 7 machines so I know what they sound like)
5- Be affordable in some way!!!!!!!!!

Seriously guys, how can they make these claims when no one other than MF has ever had the table in there system knowing that it is in Class A+ and measures so well.  They have never even asked!!!!!!!!!

HW