Best vintage DD turntables from the 70's and 80's?
YAMAHA GT-2000 has just jumped onto my radar Have you seen both versions ? Look here for luxury 2000L version. It has a coreless motor, must be a great deck, SAEC made special version of their arm for Yamaha table. Not sure how easy user can change an arm if needed? I found a nice Onkyo for ya. Only 33000 euro! Deal, this is what i normally pay for one singel cartridge, so it's a bargain |
This is a subject about which I know something. Only two turntables or maybe one and a half turntables mentioned so far would play in the same league with the PD444, if we restrict ourselves to vintage direct drive. These include a Micro Seiki and the Yamaha, but not the DDX1000 model and not the GT2000 model. The M-S DQX1500 (the "Q" indicates Quartz reference, which you want; whereas the DDX models do not have quartz referencing) and the GT2000X are the ones to look for. (The L model is just a fancy plinth with a plain GT2000 chassis.) Unfortunately, Japanese people know this too, and those tables are very hard to find. There was kind of a horsepower race among the top manufacturers, to make cost no object DD products, at the end of the 70s and up to the mid or late 80s. The truly creme de la creme are the Pioneer Exclusive P3, the SP10 MK3 (of course), the Kenwood L07D, the Sony XS9 (really hard to find), the Denon DP100 (very very expensive), the aforementioned GT2000X, The Victor TT101 or the 801, which has vacuum hold down but is otherwise identical to the TT101. The big Nakamichi with LP centering function is kind of in a class by itself. I've not heard it but from what I can gather, the centering feature is genius but the rest of the turntable is not any better if as good as the top dogs. I own a Mk3 and a Kenwood L07D and a TT101. I have a subliminated hankering for a Pioneer P3, but I think I can live without it. I also have a Denon DP80 which in my system and in my opinion outperformed an SP10 Mk2 but does not outperform the Mk3 or the Kenwood. |
Forgot to say, I am not a collector. All of my turntables are in use except for the Denon DP80, which I would sell if the market value was not so ridiculously low. If anyone wants to get into this game, the DP80 is the one to look for; it can generally be found for less than $1000 (but not at my house). TT101s are relatively cheap, too, but a bit more rare and very problematic to fix if broken. |
