What are your top 3 favorite turntable companies (manufacturer) and why?


I am interested in knowing which 3 turntable companies you like and why? Not interested in the Direct Drive vs Belt drive argument, just what is your experience with the company product and... support too. Something like this as an example-

Garrard- very solid and classic design that sounds great and built like a tank.

Well Tempered- Very good design and even better tonearm performance. Best model is  ________

Technics- Very solid design and easy to adjust. Great idea with removeable headshell

Your thoughts and experience welcome

2psyop

dwette, I exaggerated it a little.

Why ? Because Brits understand PRAT and midrange. And Australian Contiuum and Dohmann, same designer, are, well, thought of as being among the very best.

@inna

I have a German turntable and tonearms (Clearaudio), Japanese cartridges (Lyra x 2, Dynavector), American phono-stage (Boulder), British electronics (Naim Audio top-of-line Classic series), Danish speakers (Dynaudio) and British subs (REL).

I know about PRaT and great midrange. My system has both. Brits are great at it (and you see I have Naim/REL) but they can't claim or dominate it on their own. smiley

No, they don't, I suppose. But when I think turntables I always think British first.

Good for you, but most other audiophiles don't, or if they do I wait to hear from them.

And I think Australians might take umbrage at the notion they are naught but displaced Brits. Doehmann and Caliburn are very fine TTs, for sure, but neither makes a TT for the masses, and neither has a long history in the business.

Technics

SOTA

VPI

Thorens (mostly in honor of their past successes)

Linn (because otherwise I will be excoriated)

The above in no particular order.

Also now I think of it: Denon, Dual, AR, Kuzma, Basis, Yamaha, Pioneer.

What parts have you needed for a Clearaudio? Just curious. In nearly 15 years of Clearaudio ownership (Ovation/Innovation/Universal) I’ve only needed belts, and some bearing oil my dealer provided free.

As for upgrades, I got some pretty generous trade-in allowances on Clearaudio arms from Musical Surroundings in the past (Clarify -> Magnify -> Universal), the Clearaudio U.S. distributor.

A plain Innovation armboard with a 40 mm hole drilled in it for $900, with an 8 month wait. Replacement Master Innovation shipping boxes (& packing) also for $900. Everything ordered from Germany takes a long, long time to arrive. A 80mm acrylic top platter (to replace the delrin one), I think that was $1600 - 2K. The liquid pump in my Double Matrix Pro Sonic keeps failing, ugh very frustrating.

I also have a spare Innovation controller PCB which is good because I don’t trust the trimpots on my original one (always adjusting back & forth to try and stabilize speed). Can’t for the life of me remember what I paid for that but I’m sure it wasn’t cheap. I should probably also get a spare DC motor since I’ll be keeping this table for the long haul.

On the bright side it is my best sounding table :)