If you were looking for a direct drive turntable ...


Let's say one that cost less than $3K, with cartridge, what would you look at? I'd been thinking about a Technics SL-1200GR, but they seem no longer to be available. Which has led me to the Thorens 403, the Music Hall Stealth, and ...?

Please do help.

Unless, that is, I end up getting a Rega and stick with belt drive.

Thanks for indulging me on my quest, as I'm old and don't have limitless funds.

-- Howard

 

hodu

It's not so much a matter of which tt is better; it's very dependent on who you are as a hands-on or hands-off kinda person - anything in your $ range will be acceptable.  You say you're old - not all that relevant, unless you are implying you don't want to tinker or your sight/dexterity aren't what they used to be.  There's a lot of good options in that price range depending on your situation.  Do you want to have a tt that you take out of the box, put together, and start playing?  Would you prefer getting a tt that needs you to add and set up your own cartridge?  Would you be up for buying a used or vintage table of possibly higher quality and dealing with any issues yourself or finding someone to fix/refurbish it for you, or building one from the ground up with parts you select?  I will assume that you are in the US because right now it's very hard to get a GR or G from a store or online - my last search found nothing that wasn't over MSRP and coming from the UK or Japan.  The Technics tables are fussless, especially if you get a 1500c or such that comes with a cartridge, but I would stretch to the G if you have your heart set on the Technics (when they're available again - keep looking!).  Lots of belt drives out there in whatever configuration you desire, and it's more important to pick one with the features and adjustability you want.  Are you going to change cartridges on a regular basis, and so will need to easily adjust VTA, tracking force, azimuth, antiskating maybe?  Are you one to constantly monitor the tt speed in case a belt is getting old and slowing down or the belt is in the proper grooves to give the most accurate speed?  Do you want feet you can adjust?  Do you need a built-in phono stage?  How about semi-auto functions?  Will you play 45's and 78's as well?  What accessories are you going to have to buy extra to make the table work for you once you buy it - cables, clamp, dust cover, special adjustment tools, periphery ring, extra shims to set tonearm height, isolation solution, strobe disk, platter mat?  I would make a list of the features/adjustabilty you want and make sure your choice checks all of the boxes.

@cleeds , can you tell me how a motor turns?

Actually, yes. I can tell you how various DD motors work, how belt drive motors work, what a "shadow pole" motor is ... and on and on. And I can tell you that your claim that turntables use "osciallating motors" is, uh, absurd. You simply don’t know what you’re talking about.

Like you, I typically don’t care for DD ’tables, and owned a few of them including a Denon DP-6000 and a DP-80 on a VPI base. Unlike you, I don’t dismiss all of them with a wave of the hand under the absurd notion that they use an oscillating motor. In my world, facts still matter. You’ve just shown that once again, you don’t know what you’re talking about. When you do that, you tend to fill in your knowledge gaps with nonsense, such as your "euphoric turntable". That was a Dusey!

This one:

Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference – Robb Report

Just kidding--this one does not actually work at all, but it sure is pretty!

 

I would go with Technics.  They kind of invented the idea and seem to be improving it all the time.

 

Cheers!

I am getting all verklempt to see the nice photo of a Transcriptors Reference. Back in the day, they were irresistible, and I did own one for a while. No matter whether it was a good turntable or not, no one can say it was not great fun to watch. Some of us old farts can remember it was prominently displayed in the movie, "A Clockwork Orange". What was really hokey was the hinge between the headshell and the arm wand, permitting free movement in the vertical direction. Also, the 5 brass pedestals that support the LP (sort of) on the platter surface are the anti-thesis of a record mat. But watching those brass pieces rotate at 33 rpm was riveting, if you also had a doobie on hand. Thanks for the photo.

 

Mijostyn’s blanket indictment of DD turntables, the "oscillating" motor, has been "asked and answered" many times before. If he understood the meaning of the word "oscillation" in the context of electronics, he would probably choose another term. He’s thinking about EMI radiations. I am sad to see he cannot appreciate the Kenwood L07D. In that turntable, Kenwood engineers attempted to address nearly every aspect of proper design, for DD or other. It was very advanced for 1980 and is still very modern in its execution. No TT drive system is without potential conceptual flaws, so let’s just leave it at that.

I am surprised that people still get energized over the drive mechanisms used in better turntables.  In my view whether a belt or direct drive is used is about as impropant as what color the plinth is.  It is true that my every day TTs are both DD, but I would be happy to own belt drives from Dr. Feickert, Kuzma, SME, Rega or Air Force and so on.  Really we should be focused on more important issues, like tonearms and cartridges, and trying to figure out a way to pool our resources to help each other sort through phono preamps and SUTs.