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New direct drive turntables?

At the risk of beginning a DD vs. belt drive debate -- which is not at all my desire, as those so frequently turn into rants -- I'm wondering the following: Are there any new, reasonably affordable, decent-quality direct drive turntables? (I'm thinking about something that might compete with the lower-end Regas and Pro-jects, something in the $1k range, give or take.

I'm asking because it seems so odd that the Technics tables stopped being produced at about the moment that vinyl really took off again. Isn't there some company -- Denon? Onkyo? Technics? -- that has already done the R&d, that knows how to manufacture the motor, etc., that might be able to bring a reasonably priced direct drive turntable back onto the market now to compete with the belt drive units of similar price?

Just wondering.

Thanks.

-- Howard
hodu
pbnaudio's avatar
pbnaudio
1,613 posts
 
Audpulse,

Im looking at a Technics SP10 MK 2 right now, let's see how this works out it seems pretty promising.

Good Listening

Peter
lohanimal
659 posts
 
Dear Hodu
Whilst I do not think the SL1200's are the ultimate in terms of engineering - they are one of the best performance/cost wise in engineering terms.
The thing is that Technics/Panasonic see manufacturing resource allocation on the basis of opportunity cost so they are probably better off dedicating their manufacturing resources to TV's and BluRay players as they have significantly more demand.
The technology and research to develop a mass manufactured good, could, in essence be dedicated to making a very technologically advanced at a very good price - eg IPhones - that can't be made by small companies - that's why DD's of the 70's were such incredible products and you won't see that kind of technology in TT's at a relatively affordable price again.
I will say, however, that there are quite a few high spec DD decks available such as Stanton, Vestax, and Numark that have impressive specs - in fact some better than the SL1200. I know that seems like heresy to the SL1200 gang - but I had 1200's from my time as a DJ and the newer decks sounded at least just as good.
lewm
13,204 posts
 
Halcro, IMO, the use of AC and DC to describe the servo is a little misleading as regards these turntables. The Denon uses a 3-phase AC synchronous motor, if I recall correctly. Thus it tends to be more speed stable even without a servo, compared to DC motors without a servo. The Victor and L07D use coreless motors that yes run on DC. The servo circuits in these TT's are very different from one another in design and application, I think. I guess you can lump them as AC or DC, but it does not tell you much.
downunder
1,329 posts
 
Pioneer PLX-1000.

Picked one up last week at a good price with the plans to ultimately give to my daughter, however she may be waiting a while :-)

Frankly I am amazed with its excellent performance and for the $$, imo pretty unbeatable.

DD starts and stops on a dime, almost plug and play and looks cool to boot. Surprisingly heavy and nicely damped.



cheers

dave_72
1,399 posts
 
Cool, sounds good. If I didn't already have the Technics SL-1210 M5G, I probably would check that out...
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