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

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 :) 

burmester 175 is a complete system, IMO, nothing comes close in the price range and its a beauty

merrill-scallia and Merrill-williams tables, absolutely stunning performance

sme makes a great table as well

Libraries and other places use Simon Yorke with SME arms for transfers.

Who is familiar with them ? And why would they use it with SME arms and not full SME set up, I wonder ?

Speaking of British.

In no particular order: Linn, VPI, SOTA…

Honorable mention: Kenwood, Systemdek

Happy listening.

 

No one mentioned Walker. You guys heard anything about turntables or what ?