Most hyped turntable, tonearm, and cartridge?

You guys act like the OP is shopping for a turntable.  He isn't.

HYPED ---   To advertise or promote by misleading or exaggerated claims.

lewm,
Thanks for your notice.
You are right. I was not deliberately trolling, but I understand that it could be taken as trolling.
Why did I ask? I was interested in hearing people’s opinion, not so much of fact (like measurement data on noise, hum, wow, flutter, ...). However, opinion can be very biased, and without supported fact it could end up into pointless argument. Anyway, a good portion of high end audio is based on hype and personal and subjective opinion, and asking whether something is hype or not may be pointless as you suggested. Hope that my question would not fall into pointless argument. So far, I like all the postings. Learned something new too.

Here’s my story (please skip it if you are not interested in hearing about it, and it might digress to other direction).
I had Thorens 124 and Garrard 301, and sold Thorens because it was too much to keep both, and I liked Garrard more. I’ve had Garrard over 8 years. My Garrard is with Ortofon RMG 309 + SPU Gold/Silver and Ortofon RS 212 + SPU mono (dual arms). I don’t hear much hum or noise. It sound just nice. I like this setup a lot. Better than my other setup (Clearaudio Bluemotion + AT150mlx, Ortofoc MC20, SL15, ..., Denon 103R). However, at over three times price tag. My Clearaudio is for B rated albums and Garrard is for A rated albums.

Then I saw new Thorens and Garrard selling at $15K and $20K. The high price tag must be due to the popularity of the vintage models and strong following. The popularity may be due to their true superb performance or possibly due to hype or nostalgia, or something to do with cult level status.
I was not interested in Technics DD turntables and I did not know how good they were, but I pretty much ignored them and lumped them into cheap Japanese turntable category. But I recently saw a lot of people using new 1200GR at under $2K, and most users seemed to be just happy about it. I wonder how many happy Technics DD users compared their setup with vintage/new Garrard/Thorens with SPU. I might try it by myself. If Technics 1200GR with SPU (with additional counter weight) sounds just as good and I don’t hear much difference, I can sell my Garrard. So, in that sense, lewm, you were not right.

Then I saw new Thorens and Garrard selling at $15K and $20K. The high price tag must be due to the popularity of the vintage models and strong following. The popularity may be due to their true superb performance or possibly due to hype or nostalgia, or something to do with cult level status.

You'd be surprised. All of these play a part. Except hype, a word you seem to use as a catch-all for anything anyone likes more than you think they should. But whatever. There's a point here worth making but its going to call for opening your mind and looking around at the whole big wide world. By you I mean you the reader not necessarily just you the OP. 

I've been a Porsche guy since high school. Back then a new 1979 911SC sold for about $25k. By the time I could afford one it was 1991, they were depreciated to about $12-16k, and I found a very nice example for $16k. People mocked me for over-paying when $12k was the going rate, and sure enough within a few years its worth much less but oh well, its a nice car, don't they all go down in value anyway? Well now 30 years later its got another 150k miles on it and still a fine example and guess what? They go for like $40k now, ones as nice as mine anyway. The better the condition the higher they go. 

What I noticed over my 30 years following these things, they all do this. Every single one. People get blinders on, something catches their attention, they figure has to be X. Which X could be oh its a GT, or its a Speedster, its the last of the air-cooleds, or X could be what you said, nostalgia, cult (another misused word like hype) status, whatever. Point is this is nothing special. Happens all the time. Don't be distracted by this one or that one. Pay attention to the trend. The all-powerful trend. 

The trend is anything and everything that somehow manages to survive the ravages of time becomes worth a lot more. One Porsche guy refused to believe me, went looking for proof, was at least man enough to admit when he found a Chrysler K-car selling for $25k, about 5x what they went for new, crappiest car Chrysler ever made. Watches, clocks, telescopes, and yes turntables all follow this same trend. Try and find something more than 30 years old still in great condition that has not gone up in value.  

(Priced in fiat dollars, which is the real problem. None of these has gone up in terms of real money, gold. But that's another one for another day.) 

The market is thin, and the market is specialized. You can bet your bottom dollar that $15k turntable you're talking about is one truly exceptional example, nothing like what you have or are likely ever to see anywhere. That's why people pay the money. To have something special. And it is. All you have to do is watch the reaction every time I pull up at a gas station. People just naturally love intrinsic beauty that endures. Its not hype. Its in our blood. 

@aj523,

"Of course I still obessed a little with vibration and swapped out the stock feet for the Symposium rollerback plus and one of their better shelves. And changed the cart to the Aphelion2 which was a nerve racking experience, thank God for the head screw."



This is the kind of unforgettable stuff that sets us audiophiles apart from the rest of the human race. We sometimes seem to be living 2 lives, one for the world and the other for our obsession.

After 20 years of marriage and 2 kids I don't think I'd be up to that kind of thing anymore. It's bad enough with a $250 cart let alone a $3k one.

Gosh those days of experimenting with wall shelves and various turntable platforms seem so so long ago - and yet so recent.

If I remember correctly different platforms under the Rega 3 never seemed to make much difference.

The better way for me to go was to use a rigid lightweight table as a support rather than a wall shelf.

I now suspect that this was largely down to living fairly close to a busy main road whereby no wall shelf was ever going to excel in being stationary enough.

I hope you've had better luck at the vinyl summit with your Rega 10. Many years later I'm still not certain what the best way of attaching a turntable wall shelf would be, but here's a nice story warning of some potential dangers.

https://theaudiophileman.com/decent-audio-turntable-wall-shelf/