What should also be clarified at this point is that the standard platter for the GT 2000x was the 6.5Kg aluminium platter.
The GT 2000/2000L were released in 1982. Both were designed, let's get that clear, designed to deal with the 18Kg gunmetal platter. Let's also get the following clear, with or without the optional outboard power supply. The stock standard GT 2000 and GT 2000L were designed to deal with the gunmetal platter.
The GT 2000x came onto the market in 1985. 3 years after the GT 2000/2000L. 3 years after the gunmetal platter. The GT 2000 was a limited edition release at a premium price. The problem for Yamaha was that the GT 2000x competed with its own wildly successful GT 2000 which was close to one third the price. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that Yamaha didn't sell all of the 2000x models manufactured.
The GT 2000 is the single most popular( read: high sales figures) Ultra Direct Drive ever sold in Japan. You have to hear one to understand the reason for that. In bare-bones stock form it is a remarkably good sounding turntable, even in comparison with any other Ultra Direct Drive. I am not saying it was the best, I'm just saying that it is a remarkably good sounding turntable in stock form. The Japanese obviously were very impressed with it.
There are a number of bonuses which accompany the stock bare-bones Yamaha GT 2000. It can be sonically upgraded by purchasing the optional extras. The GT 2000 is no slouch in bare bones form. When the optional outboard power supply is added(even to the stock 6.5Kg platter) the sound quality takes a decent advance. Supposedly the 18Kg gunmetal platter takes things much further again.
The original release price of the bare-bones stock standard GT 2000 in 1982 was 130,000 yen. The original release price of the optional 18 Kg YGT-1 gunmetal platter for the GT 2000 in 1982 was 120,000 yen. That's right; The 18Kg gunmetal platter cost almost as much as the entire price of the stock GT 2000. Consider also that the optional 18Kg gunmetal platter for the stock GT 2000, once purchased, rendered the leftover stock 6.5 Kg platter superfluous and essentially worthless. Despite costing almost as much as the entire stock turntable and rendering the stock platter superfluous, Yamaha sold lots of the gunmetal platters also. Surely that wouldn't be the case if the gunmetal platter made little or no difference? Surely word of mouth would have established that the expensive gunmetal platter was not worth purchasing? Quite the opposite happened. The Japanese embraced the now twice as expensive combination of Yamaha GT 2000 with YGT-1 gunmetal platter. OK the gunmetal platter did not sell in the same numbers as the stock GT 2000, but it did sell very well for such an expensive accessory. Obviously there had been an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the addition of the gunmetal platter by the Japanese buying public. Many wanted a GT 2000 and a substantial number of GT 2000 owners wanted to pay almost as much again for the gunmetal platter.
Fast forward 35 years, and we see that the prices for the gunmetal platters on the second-hand market have skyrocketed to between 2 and 3 times the price of the second-hand stock GT 2000. Again, with the hindsight of 35 years, don't you think that should the gunmetal platter make little or no difference to the performance of the stock GT 2000 that either there would be no movement of the second-hand market price or that it would have fallen in value? The gunmetal platter did sell in smaller numbers than the stock GT 2000, so it can be argued that the increase in value seen in second-hand gunmetal platters is solely down to the rarity factor. What has to be taken into account is that many of the other optional accessories for the GT 2000 are more rare than the gunmetal platter, yet their second-hand prices have not doubled or tripled. This tends to deflate the validity of the "gunmetal platter rarity solely responsible for the price increase" argument.
The GT 2000 is the dark-horse of the Ultra Direct Drive second-hand market only in the non-Japanese countries. That simply because it has no market presence of 35 years in non-Japanese countries to have established its reputation. Everyone knows of the SP10 Mk III despite its rarity. The same applies to the Sony PS-X9, the Kenwood L-07D, the Nakamichi TX-1000, the Marantz TT-1000, the Micro Seiki DQX-1000, the Luxman PD-555, the Nakamichi Dragon. All of these top of the line Ultra Direct Drive turntables received multiple reviews in many countries. This established them as High-End turntables in a world where belt drive was lauded and direct drive was demonised in many markets. The GT 2000 essentially never existed for the past 35 years outside of Japan. In Japan the opposite is the fact. The GT 2000 is well known and well loved. Despite thousands of them selling in Japan, when they appear on the Japanese second-hand market, the GT 2000 does not languish struggling to find buyers. They are snapped up within weeks if not days. Surely that would not be the case if the GT 2000 was over-hyped or especially vastly inferior to other Ultra Direct Drive turntables?
The GT 2000 still has very,very few Western owners. I know of less than 30 worldwide, despite keeping an eye on these numbers. Of those I am by an order of magnitude the most recognised internet author of posts about the GT 2000( a situation which is not due to my needing that reputation). I tend to prefer to respond to threads about either the GT 2000 or Ultra Direct Dive turntables. There is a lot of misunderstanding about the GT 2000. The biggest fallacy is that the GT-750 is the equal of the GT 2000. One only needs to look at the Japanese HiFiDo site. It has more than 20 GT-750s for sale at half the price of the GT 2000, some of which have been listed for nearly 1 year. It would seem that the Japanese aren't interested in the GT 750 at half the price of the GT 2000, at all. They ignore them. The Japanese buyer votes with their wallet on the issue of the GT 750 being the equal of the GT 2000.
lewm, I have repeatedly stated here that the gunmetal platter is suitable for the stock GT 2000. You have repeatedly reiterated that the gunmetal platter needs the GT 2000x. Please understand the truth of the matter.
