Vintage Denon Direct Drive Turntable

I had a DP75 which was similar with the two piece platter. It was a less expensive version of the 80 for some reason,can't remember what the difference was. About a year old the speed became unregulated and it took off like a helicopter!Interesting arrangement, a tape recorder head that read a magnetic strip on the inside of the platter.Sent it back to Denon who could not fix it and therefore exchanged it with a "B" stock unit. 307 is a terrible arm design with mushy rubber seperating the arm tube from the pivot point.No rigidity and extreme loss of information. I would be nervous about one of these today,the rubber would probably be dried out making the arm useless.401 is a better arm,but needs a low mass high compliance cartridge.

Dear Donshoemaker: As a fact the 75 has better specs than the 80.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

So far, I have not done any maintaince on its bearing. I believe Denon motor units very much resemble to my other JVC turntable motors which are also sealed and do not need any oil change at all. My DP80 has, no doubt, proved to be a testament to its great reliability - a tribute to Denon.

Steve_g, I appreciate your advice on the need for the proper base. I assume the DP80 is not spring or shock mounted in any way in the base? Stay tuned.

Lewm, the comparison to the SP10 MKII is quite a statement. This could get interesting. Thanks for the information on the electronics, as I would not have anticipated ICs in this unit. Does anyone else believe the DP80 and the SP10 could be on a par?

Kcc123, I can't get to your link. Can you try again?

Hi Zargon,

Here are two more photos-

[IMG]http://i40.tinypic.com/mj1izb.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i40.tinypic.com/v5zxqx.jpg[/IMG]