So many great golden era DD tables out there, what do you recommend for $1000?

I’m also very late to the thread, but I will still make a recommendation.

The Teac TN-400. These are completely unrelated to the modern Teac TT’s with the same model number.

This was a table designed to compete with the Technics SP-10 and was sold without plinth.

They used an excellent technology called ’Magnefloat’ whereby the platter is slightly suspended by magnetic force to take stress off the bearings. The only thing was, they were not licensed by the inventors to use it, and they were forced by courts to cease and desist manufacture.
The entire stock was sold for ridiculously low prices. My friend and I picked these up at a LA retailer for about $100 each, decades ago.

Anyway, these things are built like battleships, are dead quiet, and dead on speed accurate.

There is one on ebay right now for $1295, with a Grace 545 arm, and what looks like a well built plinth.

These will compete with the quality of any Denon, Technics, or Kenwood you will find in the same price range.

Both my friend and I are both still using them, problem free, since we bought them.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/TEAC-TN-400-magnefloat-turntable-very-good-condition-rare-vintage-japan-F-S/163818421498?hash=item262456bcfa:g:2SUAAOSwcBJdVABH

@bimasta

This is Victor UA-7045 tonearm and standard SME type Victor headshell from this arm. Great tonearm if the counterweight is not sag down as we can see on so many used samples. BUT This is a perfect NOS sample. I’ve been using at least 3 different samples of the UA-7045 and now using UA-7082 instead.

https://www.vinylengine.com/library/grace/g-545f.shtml

Chakster, As I have pointed out to you many times, the CW is OK to sag a little bit. The rubbery joint between the CW arm and the pivot is meant to decouple the CW from the effective mass of the tonearm. Also, a little bit of sag does help to place the center of mass of the CW more closely aligned with the plane of the surface of the LP. This helps to reduce the change in VTF produced by warps. However, you’re quite right that that joint does wear over time, producing excessive sag in some cases. But a little sag is just fine. What’s important is to maintain the decoupling effect. (If the rubber washer were to be worn away or falls out, then there’s a problem.) Many if not most vintage Japanese tonearms have a straight and rigid connection between pivot and CW, wherein the CW cannot possibly sag below a straight line with the main arm tube. Modern tonearms in general have tended to decouple the CW from the main arm. So, I think of the 7045 as a particularly modern design when compared to that of its peers.
Thanks for your photo of the Victor headshell.  I don't have the original headshell with my own UA7045, so I could not address the question at hand about the collar/headshell joint.  What I see in your photo is that the original headshell looks much like any other standard SME-type joint.  Is that the point you wish to make?