Vintage Denon Direct Drive Turntable

Kcc123, thanks for the pictures. The DP 80 is a very advanced looking design for 1980, and must have created a market stir amoung other TT builders.

Hi Lewm,
I think the massive DK2300 plinth provides an excellent platform for many tonearms, low mass and high mass. I have partnered it with SAEC 308L, Audiocraft AC3000 Silver Signature, Grace 747, Signet XK50, Rega 300 ……., all with very good results and especially the Micro Seiki MA505S which is beautifully matched with the Denon.

Thanks everyone for your responses and information. This Denon still interests me and I'll report on the project.

FWIW, the 75 (which came with plinth), and the 80 (which was sold plinthless, but with at least three choices of plinth) are not that far off in terms of specs. The DP-75M was JPY 180,000 (with plinth and arm), and the DP-80 was JPY 95,000 by itself, the DK-2300 plinth retailed for JPY 70,000, and arm was separate. The S/N ratio and self-reported WOW/Flutter numbers are better on the 75, but the Japan Institute of Standards put the WOW of both at the same level (and both slightly higher than the self-reported numbers). The spin-up of the 80 is supposed to be slightly faster, and the DP-80+DK-2300 is about 10% heavier than the DP-75M (including arm). Either one should be serious contenders as those were the prices of most firms' 'one-down-from-the-top' offerings around 1980 (the top-priced offerings were things like the DP-100M, Technics SL-1000, Yamaha PX-1, Sony PS-X9, Exclusive P-3a, etc).

I would love to try one a Denon but I have too many 'projects' lying in wait...

T bone, thanks for your insights. I am wondering about wow and flutter in a turntable, which would be reflection of speed irregularity rather than noise, I think. In the brochure for the DP80, Denon claims unprecedented speed stability, so whatever the measured numbers were, I would assume they were low compared to the competition. What were the numbers, do you know? I think we were talking about signal to noise or rumble specs before.