Am I a hopeless audio snob?

Richopp, sorry old chap, but your paragraph on tangential tonearms is rife with misinformation. For one example, The best part about the B&O SL turntables was the MMC1 or MMC2 MI type cartridges with which the best of them were equipped.

Furthermore, the vintage Technics direct drive turn tables at the highest level (SP10 Mk3) are competitive with just about anything you can buy today for under $10,000. Whether one given individual will prefer the sound to that of a modern turntable is of course a matter of taste. On that scale, the current prices of properly refurbished and repainted examples are not exorbitant. My opinion, of course.

I wrote “brief fling”, so no, I certainly don’t still own it. It still has a certain kitsch however for having been featured in the movie “Clockwork Orange “. If I had one I’d display it with the platter in rotation but I’d not connect it to an audio system.

Richopp, that’s the one I had, for a brief fling. The Vestigial tonearm was a hoot. But funnily back then I bought in the shortlived belief it was SOTA.

AMG also make fast Mercedes Benz’s.

Your choice, like my choices, is the natural result of your past audio experience. Thus it’s very personal. I’m glad you didn’t just follow a dealer’s advice blindly, as one might have inferred. Congratulations.

so I don’t get why you started a thread based on a swipe at Technics and Japanese products in general without at least also mentioning your extensive prior experience and knowledge and that you probably never had any interest in a Technics TT. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

What happened was you noted an objection to the appearance of the Technics G series turntables, without actually naming them, and this elicited a bevy of responses from the belt drive crowd who are typically activated when anyone mentions the possibility for denigrating a direct drive turntable like all those made by Technics. So your thread devolved into a belt drive fest. That group was further divided by Mijostyn who could not help mentioning his particular distaste for VPI. His distaste for VPI then elicited responses from a bevy of VPI lovers. And the beat goes on. I would advise you to spend a lot of time listening to various types of turntables including both direct drive and belt drive types. They do have their distinctive characteristics if you are an experienced listener. If you are not an experienced listener then you may hear no important difference between the two types. In fact, the best of both sound closest to each other. Then it depends how much you want to spend. As an aside, the technics G series turntables top out at around $4000, which you mentioned, but there are less expensive versions that can be had for far less money.

But it seems you made a purchase based on the advice of your dealer. What?

Richop, I am lying in bed this morning, thinking for some reason of this ridiculous thread, and the Transcriptors Reference came to my mind too. There never was a cooler looking TT. For looks alone it can’t be beat. With the OEM Transcriptors tonearm, it can’t play records very well but who cares? I had a brief love affair with it. With a modern tonearm it might rise to the level of average performance.

The  Reference version had a huge plexiglass dust cover hinged at the rear, which should make Mijostyn happy.

Thank you for your 1950s attitude toward Japanese made products. Perhaps you were sleeping the last 60 or so years.

Technics may (or may not) have made a colossal error in designing the latest G series to resemble so closely their most popular ever but mundane looking SL 1200 series, but if you turn up your nose because of that, are you aware of the SP10R? And do you realize the stature of their best older efforts? Anyway, Technics will carry on without you, so no worries about being a snob. After all, you seem to have company.