Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

Luis, do yourself a favor and use PD-444 as it is, without any modifications like subplinth or whatever, it’s a waste if time and money for nothing, really. The original design is absolutely perfect and it works perfectly without any single problem! It is a well engineered turntable, just replace the stock mat. 
Do not change the stock feet, they are adjustable (suspended). 
Luxman is one of thouse turntables you don’t have to mess arround, you don’t need a plinth! Read about clever engineering of this machine first. 

Lew, the L07D came to me with the Kenwood tonearm rewired from cartridge clips to RCA males.  I believe it has Cardas wiring. The fellow who sold it to me said that it was a fairly simple matter to loosen or uncouple the bearing and slip through the wires.  Perhaps, but he had above average dexterity.  This was amply demonstrated as he described the job while standing upright in the process of dismantling a Lyra Atlas from the detached tonearm without bothering to fix a stylus guard. I once rewired a rare Micro Seiki 808X with broken wires.  That was a delicate job that I would not want to repeat.

Chakster, a stock PD-444 is very nice indeed.  However one weakness in its design may be the relatively slight structure of the tonearm sleds and the locking mechanism that secures them at a single point.  Kenwood put lots of thought into a heroically built arm base that couples to the plinth and motor housing through a massive substructure.  My Wenge subchassis for the PD-444 was similarly conceived.  I compared two identical SME 3012R arms with ART7 cartridges on the Luxman.  The arm on the Wenge pedestal sounded better.  On the other hand, if you want to believe that a stock PD-444 is an immaculate conception, so be it.      

 

if you want to believe that a stock PD-444 is an immaculate conception, so be it.    

Amen.

@dgarretson If you think your upgrade is better then it’s fine, but it’s you and your system. I have about 8 Luxman armbases (all types) and they are all fine in my system to my ears just like my two stock Luxman turntables. The reason I bought this turntable after SP-10 mkII is because I don’t want to "upgrade" anything in the "plinth" or armboards like we do with some other turntables constantly.

The PD-444 is a workstation for nearly all tonearms.
If someone is buying Luxman the best thing to do is to use it as it is, but not to mess around with "upgrades" (in my opinion). For "upgrades" there are many drives like TT-101 or DP-80 to make a custom plinth etc. 

I’ve seen a wooden plinth made for PD-444 but I don’t like it.
A nice LUX turntable in this plinth look like a cheap Thorens from the grandpa.

I made a nice metal racks (my own design) for a pair of LUX PD-444

P.S. I can highly recommend this tonearm for Luxman PD-444

A very nice system, chakster.