What is the fascination?


I have to ask what is the fascination with these older turntables?  I recently listened to an older SP 10 MKII with a Jelco and Older SME arm with Koetsu and Stanton cartridges.  The sound was very good I will admit but I cannot say it was better than the 1200G or even a 1200GR for that matter.  Heck even the Rega RP 8 is really an amazing sounding turntable for the money and they are brand new.   These tables are coming up on 40 plus years old.  One forum contributor said a turntable should not have any sound at all.  I agree and the newer tables get closer to that "no sound" than many of these colored (smooth,  warm) sounding turntables   I recently purchased a Pickering ESV 3000 MM cartridge that arrived in the mail yesterday and I had to ask myself, "what am I doing?"  So with that being said, why the fascination?  If one want to change the sound of the table, start with the cartridge, they all do sound different.  Nowadays the tables and arms are so good and engineered based on the earlier designs and bettered.  Also, when you buy say an older used arm, how do you know its been cared for?  Arms bearings can be screwed up pretty bad when one tries to tighten cartridges with the headshell attached to the tonearm or the tonearm mounted on the table and many people do not even know they are destroying their arms bearings so I mean you really have to know who you are getting the arm from and check the bearings etc.  There is a lot of risk with turntables, much more than with any components because of so many moving parts that do get old and break.  Why the fascination? 
tzh21y
dweller
... I'd like to find a mint Garrard Zero-100 -something from my youth. Was really "spiffy"!
Ugh. That was one awful turntable.
perhaps you haven't checked Thorens Ave that can get what you're looking for -- Fascination.
I think @albertporter could tell you his story better than me-- he had a Walker- a fancy, no holds barred modern (at the time) table and was experimenting with the Lenco (if memory serves). He liked the propulsive aspect of the idler but wanted to get the noise floor down, which led him to experiment with the old SP-10; he developed a rather elaborate plinth using panzerholz and worked on all kinds of isolation tweaks, together with mods done by Krebs.
I have an ancient SP 10 that I bought new back in 1973-4?. It’s not the Mk ii or iii, and doesn’t have the attributes of those tables. I nonetheless had it restored at modest cost for use in a second system. (Though I have not yet mounted an arm).
@ddk (who posts here occasionally) has a veritable museum of high end tables. He could speak  better to what he likes about them- recognizing that none of them were bargains, even used, older or in need of restoration.
My main table is relatively modern- though it is now 12 years old. I certainly wouldn’t mind having an EMT from the right era, though.
@syntax knows a lot about the big old Micro-S. Also very desirable, but again, not like you are saving money buying one compared to a new table.
Just because you can't tell the difference in sound does not mean others cannot, or that none exists. No idea why you think older tables sound "smooth and warm." 
I have not listened to the Pickering yet.  It just sort of hit me in a way when I received it that you really are taking a serious risk with some of this stuff.  I am not saying that there is not any quality gear out there from yesteryear, there certainly is.  It just that you are taking a risk, a big one in some cases as older Micro Seiki tables as some of the members have are just very expensive for a used table, especially if you do not know the owner that had it last.  Even investments of 2 to 3 k for a table going on 50 years old is taking a chance.  Motors burn out, can you still get support and parts for it? etc.