Direct Drive turntables

I don't think an inflation calculator answers the question of what a Luxman PD444 would cost today. Circa 1974 when that turntable was designed, a substantial manufacturing infrastructure and technical coterie existed in Japan for making direct drive turntables. And the market was larger, supporting higher volumes and better marketing efficiency. Those assets are sharply truncated now. For a new company to research, design and manufacture a similar product in low volumes would, I expect, require a selling price well above what inflation suggests. By inflation alone, a PD444 available for $795 in 1978 should come to market for just under $3,000 today. The VPI Classic at $2500 with tonearm gives some hope that might be a supportable assumption. The fact that a simple Pro-ject Xtension (belt drive but mag-lev load-reduced platter and solid plinth) costs over $5,000 without arm and with a commodity motor, or that a Brinkmann Oasis DD costs over $8,000 without tonearm, suggest an inflation-calculated cost won't cover it, given tiny market volume, contemporary manufacturing costs, and modern channel inefficiency in high-end audio.

Phil

Phil, I agree that the inflation calculator does not answer the question. The channel inefficiency part is key. Another point was that in 1978, the USD/JPY rate was much higher than it was today (the dollar was at twice as strong vs the yen, and for a decent part of the year was 2.5x stronger). Indeed the USD was much stronger against a host of currencies. Most of such a table would be manufactured outside the US I imagine and would therefore have those local manfacturing/profit margins built into non-USD currencies before being brought here to have another multiple (or two) taken on the sale.

Owned both tables and sold them. The Denon 47 F was nosey a lot of record surface noise. Upgraded to the Aries 1 that I enjoyed for many years. But after purchasing a TTW Audio TT I realized the Aries was colored and soft sounding.

Cjaronica, This is not to dispute your logic in ending up with a TTW turntable, but a turntable per se is not going to exaggerate "record surface noise". That phenomenon is typically due to the phono stage, the cartridge/tonearm combination, cartridge set-up, or a combination of all these elements.