Vintage Denon Direct Drive Turntable

I am far from an expert on these, but i have done some reading on them. My speculation on the 75, and this comes from comparing original pricing, brochures, sales method, specs, embedded technology, etc, is that after 5+ years of making the DP-80 and seeing it become something of a hit, they had come up with some slight technological improvements in platter and chassis to reduce rumble a bit more, and as Japan was entering a disposable income boom and doodadegadgetry was king, it was a great thing to add to the line-up. Voila! The younger brother to the DP-80 coming of age. Unit costs were much lower mostly because fixed costs had been amortized already, but based on a suspicious lack of info about the DP-75 motor, and the few specs I see, I suspect the DP-75 motor had a fair bit less torque than the DP-80, and while I do not know for sure, I think the DP-75 had fewer manual override possibilities than the DP-80. This table appealed both to the crowd who had not already replaced their DP-3000 and DP-6000 with the DP-80 over the previous 6yrs (it was too expensive, etc) and to the people who wanted to hit a certain price point vs income. With the DP-75, one got almost the same thing, and better specs to boot, for about 30% less (table only), so just like the top top end of digital cameras these days when technological obsolescence happens much faster, manufacturers keep just a bit back on model numbers offered with a lower price point, just to stay sane. Only after the deceased has been respectably buried do they offer better-in-all-ways technology for less money.

I own neither, and offhand, if I really wanted to choose one of those two only, I would buy both and try them in the same plinth, keep one and sell the other. I have no further basis to go on than that for deciding which one I would prefer. I can say that the DP-80 is iconic, because it was the first of the 3-phase motor split-platter construction Denons made to dramatically reduce acoustic feedback-induced resonances, and while icons are not always better performers than their descendants, they are icons, and that has some value to some people.

Thanks Raul, for chiming in and filling in the blanks. The lack of manual pitch control was the one I thought was the case (does it have screws underneath to control that way like some of its contemporaries which had pitch control underneath as well?)

Dear T bone: No, the pitch control is on top in the right side of metal ring, as a fact are two knob/button: one to swith from automatic/manual and the button to change ( +,- ) the pitch.

The other difference between the 75/80 is that the 80 torque is bigger/strong.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Rauliruegas,
Thanks for your insightful contribution and your encouragement for going forward with the DP 80 project. Any way you could share a picture of these TTs and plinths?

T_bone,
Your research seems to have clearly resolved the who came first discussion. While it is an interesting experiment, I probably won't acquire both, but will use that money on a DIY plinth.

I appreciate the information and cautions of others in terms of what possible problems to avoid when buying.

Tbone et al, In the DP80, when you use the adjustable speed control you are bypassing the quartz crystal oscillator. That's the only way you can get the electronics to agree to change the platter speed, I guess. If the electronics are all copacetic, the platter will turn at exactly 33.33 with the quartz oscillator engaged, but the speed is not adjustable in this mode. This mode is much like the SP10 MkII. Presumably, it's preferable in terms of speed stability to have the quartz oscillator in play.

Raul, Upwards in this thread we discussed the Denon plinths a bit. Kcc123 has a DK2300 plinth, which is a two-arm job and looks like it has nice high mass. Today I hefted my DK300 plinth. It's a laminate of possibly some good quality plywood or hardwood and very heavy; I imagine the DK2300 is even heavier, because it is bigger in order to accomodate two arms. So I am thinking that these plinths might not be so bad. What needs to be improved is the coupling between the tt chassis and the plinth, and I intend to try to achieve that by using much thicker and longer wood screws. Or long bolts that go clear thru the plinth to the bottom side. This small mod plus the dampening of the hollow ring around the platter (see my post above) may be quite effective upgrades, without resorting to a home-made plinth. I do have a piece of slate for the DP80, if that strategy fails.