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Why hasnt a turntable manufacturer produced a table with automatic tonearm return/shutoff?

I'm listening to my old Technics 1700 turntable, which has the tonearm return/ shutoff mechanism. It's one of the reasons I don't upgrade. The idea that you have to get up to retrieve the cartridge and turn off the machine makes little sense when the technology has been there for years. I know the issue of the mechanism introducing sound into the table, but it seems to me that the mechanism can be isolated and kept off until the record ends. What gives?

kavakat1
foggyus91's avatar
foggyus91
291 posts
 

Why?

Dual, Thorens have auto lif/off. Just more stuff to fix. 

billstevenson
654 posts
 

Back in the day I had a Dual 1219 that stacked records and multi record sets were generally set up for stacking.  Record 1 had side a and d, and record 2 had side c and d, for example.  Operas were more complicated.  ;-)  I used the stacking feature at that time, still have all those records.  No harm came to them.  So the assumption that record stacking harms records is not axiomatic.  If I had a lot of old multi-record sets that were configured that way, and had a penchant for listening to them with any frequency, I would not hesitate to acquire and happily use a changer.  Both Dual and Miracord made good ones.  I know because I set up and cared for a lot of them for my happy customers.  With that said I can't imagine that tooling up to manufacture such a product today would pay dividends.

wrm57
1,095 posts
 

@billstevenson  I had that turntable, too! I think I used the multi spindle a few times but never took to it. Got a lot of mileage out of that old Dual.

fa8362
6 posts
 

You don't see it because the manufacturers don't believe there's enough demand for it to bother. Also, most audiophiles and manufacturers believe that it has a negative impact on sonic quality...and as others have mentioned, it's just something else to break.

ghdprentice
8,265 posts
 

@billstevenson ..."I used the stacking feature at that time, still have all those records."

I had a number of record players that stacked and dropped between the mid- 1950s and 1970. All of them sounded terrible in comparison to even the most basic high end turntable. But, yes, they were convenient. 

Well, I’ll be... there are some on the market... as if it is a new idea.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Pro-Ject-A1-Automatic-pre-Adjusted-switchable/dp/B09RKQGGWL

 

 

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