I started in the late 80’s as a high end audio salesman for 2 different stores representing the names of VANDERSTEEN, KRELL, CONRAD JOHNSON, APPOGEE, AUDIO RESEARCH, MCINTOSH, B&W, SUMO, JEFF ROWLAND, MARK LEVINSON, VPI, REGA, LINN, ATMOSPHERE, ELECTRON KINETICS, CELESTION, DUNLAVY, QUICKSILVER, PSE, NAD, THORENS, BAT, ETC. Enough said.
For a salesman started in the 80’s it’s ridiculous to read what you posted about Japanese Direct Drive turntables, i think you never tried any of them in your life (or at least any serious DDs). Unlike you, the owners of the brands you’ve been selling were inspired by Japanese cartridge designers, the best carts from Krell, M.Levinson, J.Rowland are all made in Japan by Japanese cartridge designers like Takeda-San and Ikeda-San.
Japan is the land of Direct Drive high-end turntables as much as the best cartridges.
So maybe it’s a cultural difference...
I tried a dozen of Direct Drive TTs from relatively cheap to very expensive, but the difference between me and you is that i tried them all in the past 5 years and i don’t have to remember anything that happened 40 years ago like you.
Right now in my system i have Victor TT-101 (pair), Luxman PD-444 (pair), Denon DP-80, also some cheaper models from Technics and Micro Seiki that is not necessary to mention.
You will hardly find anything better than those 3 models from those 3 brands even if your budged (just for the drive without tonearm and plinth) will be over $10k or even more.
Unfortunately only Technics (Matsushita) still in business for audiophiles with their new Direct Drive like SP-10R which is probably surpass anything new under $20k, because the price policy for many high-end brands including those belt drives is simply insane! While the prices from Matsushita is more than real, they are affordable!
In fact i don’t care what you will buy, but i want our readers (who never post here) to be aware of it. Vintage Direct Drive turntables from Technics, Denon, Luxman, Victor ... are great, they are flawless, solid, made in Japan and will serve their owners longer than many new crappy units that modern industry can offer for higher prices.
Technics and JVC Victor made DD motors of the highest possible quality, for this reason those motors were inside the wolrd class Disc Lathe machines in the best disc cutting studios. Japanese giants of vinyl industry also made cutting heads for Disc Lathe machines. It’s hard to imagine the industry without them. But i can imagine industry without belt drive turntables, those companies did nothing except for cheap turntables for consumers.
