Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

Banquo, If, God forbid, you ever do have a problem with the quartz clock or any other unobtainium ICs that may be lurking in the circuit, you are not necessarily out of luck. If Victor was anything like Technics, you will find that some of the individual parts of this type were also used in lesser models, often available at much lower cost vs the TT101. Thus you can probably find a lower level Victor to use as a parts mule for your TT101, if push comes to shove.

Henry, This time I emphatically agree with you; someone got a steal on that TT101.

Dear Lewm: Yes, that JVC one was an steal at that price not only because the DD TT but because comes with a great JVC tonearm performer ( I own it . ).

If you read that ebay auction the seller gives almost no importance to the tonearm atacchen/mounted. Certainly he needs the money or his knowledge level about is " poor ".

I was looking for that JVC tonearm in the past, not very hard to find out, and suddenly I seen an ebay auction at very low price for a JVC TT that came with that tonearm and the JVC DD TT-71 ( great performer too, even the 101 and surpass the 801. ) and as here the seller ad was really for the TT so I bought it and now I can enjoy two great JVC items.

The tonearm is higly recomend.

Btw, for those that wants to have the DD naked experience and can't find out the JVC TT-101 or is expensive the TT-71 JVC option is something to experience and more easy to get.

Of course that the Denon DP-75 and DP-80 options are good ones too and at least at the same JVC TT-101 level but more easy to find out and I can tell you that through so many years using my Denon's I never had any single trouble about and knowing Denon I think ( I can't besure because I never had a problem. ) could be easy to find out TT parts to fix it in case a trouble with.

About the JVC TT-101 there are some parts in its design that are not shared in its down line brothers because it's an improved design. With Technics and Denon things are a little more " easy ".

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Dear Raul,
I've also heard good comments on that JVC arm.
The plinth for the QL-10 is also a cut above the average.....although the armboard does not look like it would suit a 12" arm?
Time to go 'nude' methinks?!

Regards

NO!! Those of us who choose to buy vintage gear know the risks and if that is living dangerously...then so be it.

I purchased a mint 1 owner Denon DP-45F Direct Drive TT - locally in my home city. So I avoided the potential pitfalls of shipping a TT. Then I got a sense of the owner - pride of owning his equipment, etc.

I know that these Denons have microprocessors/capacitors - that if they fail....there can be trouble. I took a chance. After I purchased it I took it to a reputable electronics repair shop in the city and asked him to give the TT a thorough going over, make any necessary adjustments and replace anything that needed replacing.

He called and told me the deck was as clean on the inside as it was on the outside / that the main capacitors had already been replaced with quality parts / and that except for a minor adjustment or two the TT was good to go, and likely for many more years. He installed the new cart and I have been in vinyl-spinning bliss since.

The TT works flawlessly. Could it "die" anytime? Sure, but so can any modern TT. And there are more spare parts for old TT's then many people know. My tech (who owns the company and has for 30 years) says you'd be surprised what he can come up with (parts) and find somewhere in the world if he has to.

For those of us that like vintage, we take on those risks - knowingly.

Living on the edge!

Good listening,

cat9

Cat9, Capacitors are cheap, available, and better than ever. That's why I repeat ad nauseam that one ought to routinely replace electrolytic capacitors in the circuits of these old DD turntables, because failure of one of them can lead to destruction of a "microprocessor" that might be unobtainium. (In fact, your DP45 probably has only one IC, at most, but it controls major aspects of tt function. I found 3-4 years ago that it was not unobtainable, if one does a parts search on Google. I don't know whether it's still buy-able.) There are several discrete transistors in the Denon DD turntable circuits; all of those are either available or replaced by better versions. You will have no problems replacing the discrete transistors, if needed. It's that single IC you need to worry about.