Audiophile turntables of the 60's and 70's

Visiting my parents for Christmas, I found my old Philips 212 up in a closet. I loved those speed switches with the lights underneath. The Philips 212 was originally my parents' TT before they switched to a larger Thorens. When they had the Philips, I had a Dual 1225 and a 1229.

These days, I actually use two 70s TTs at home - a Micro Seiki and a Yamaha linear tracking TT.

Tbg, I too owned an Empire (598III) and I found that while the stock version was somewhat underwhelming, it could GREATLY improved. I drilled the base and installed three 1/4"x20 threaded inserts so I could experiment with various footers and then sited the table on a thick maple platform. The improvements were quite startling. While I'd never try to bs anyone about the modded 598 being some sort of real competitor with a good modern table, it could perform at a respectable level with attention to vibration/isolation issues.

My dad owned a Gerard 301 in the 60's. It was his initial stab at seperates from our Grundig console. He later bought a Benjamin Miracord ELAC with a Sure Cartridge. This table had an optional long spindle to accommodate record stacking which no one would do now and it also was automatic with a repeat play set for 7" or 12". Of course it played all 3 speeds. As of this writing it is still fully functional.

I recently sold my sota nova with sme-v arm. No real need to but just wanted to go simpler. And it doesn't get much simpler than the old, early 70s Philips ga-212. A very uncomplicated belt-drive with perfect speed control and good suspension. I use a micro-acoustics 2002e cartridge although the oem stylii are getting hard to come by!