Vintage Turntables compared to modern?

The vintage idler drive Lenco is fabulous. Vintage is the way to go.
Interesting that some high priced belt drive table manufacturers of today, are flirting with idler drive designs.
See my system photos and check out lencolovers.com.

I have been happy with my Micro Seiki MR611 for over 20 years. I am thinking of upgrading but not in any real hurry. The main problem is that to get a decent improvement I will need to spend thousands.

DS

No question in my mind about the superior return on investment found in vintage turntables. While modern belt-drive tables may compete in the area of ultimate performance, they do not compete at all in "bang for the buck" comparisons.
In the days when my Technics SL-1000 MK II was developed, Technics had a huge volume of mass market turntable sales to fund the R&D needed for such a design and perhaps a million radio stations to sell it to worldwide. Nowadays, no manufacturer in his right mind would invest that level of funding in a project that might, if lucky, sell a couple of hundred units. It just doesn't make any business sense.

Some older ones come close to the modern. I have a VPI rig, $6K worth, with all the tweaks. I also have some older TT's, various Sony and Denon. One Sony often comes close to the VPI, it is 800 biotracer with a grace ruby red, lateral tracking. For friends new to vinyl, I suggest the Denon 47F, which is fully audtomated and with the right cartridge, will sound great. The automated arm on the latter prevents user induced cartridge failure. No need to spend ten times as much.

My dad listened to the same tt for 40 years--the same Garrard 301 as mentioned above. Nice return on investment.