Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

@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.

This is certainly odd to say the least, I can't fit the motor back in a way the platter doesn't touch the plinth and turns freely, it came already kind of leaning towards the right by a millimeter or so but now it just won't fit properly, I wonder if I should use washers to keep the motor lifted higher and the platter higher too

My JVC QL-Y66F was making a bit of a clicking noise as the platter was spinning.  Not audible through the speakers, but didn't seem like a good thing.  I looked inside to see if some of the Plasti-clay I used to damp the plinth had come loose, but all seemed good there.  I put 3 little drops of oil in the bearing and mounted my Denon DL-301 MK 2.  No more clicking and it sounds a lot better than it did with the Shure V15 MK IV with the Jico SAS stylus.  

I have about $1000 into the turntable, cartridge, and phono stage and while it doesn't rival my big rig by any means, it would be hard to beat for how much I have invested.