Well I have to admit – I did it !! I helped the idler drive tts die. But in my defence I’ll say you had to be there ………it was a different time ………
Since the 50s I had listened to records on a typical British radiogram, cheap idler drive tt, full range speaker and valve amplifier. Through the 60s this kept me alive, playing Kinks and Who 45s at full blast, teenage rage satisfied. But it rumbled like a train.
Time passes, and when it comes to buying a hifi the last thing I wanted was something old or looked it. The early 70s saw the hifi industry go mass market. Adverts for hi-tec Japanese products filled the magazines, old fashioned looking British and European gear just could not compete. One or two like Quad and SME survived because of reputation and high quality. But Japanese tts had SME-alike arms, looked great and were affordable, what’s not to like?
In 1974 I was given a Garrard 301 with valve amp in an old cabinet that my brother in law had found at the local dump. It moved around the garage for a while, then one day I tried it out into a pa speaker using the Leak arm and cartridge that it came with. I didn’t finish an lp side because the cartridge was hopping around a lot, but one section of the disc played ok. I later reported during one of those late night hifi conversations that the bass was like concrete, hard and unyielding! I knew the 301 would never get to the lounge :) so when a friend said 301s fetched good money in Japan and he knew a guy that exported them. ?? £70 was a lot of money in 1975 when you’re setting up home, so bye bye 301.
I snagged a second hand TD150, fitted an SME 3009 and thought I’d never need another tt. Problem was at parties when we would listen to the old 60s 45s they didn’t have the same bite I remembered. I figured it was an age thing.
When the Sondek came out in 74 it did not cause that much of a stir. The doo doo didn’t hit the fan until an article came out in 76, one of the reviewers had been Linn-napped for a weekend, and forced to listen to records until he got it. (BTW rumble figures from back then could be quoted in several different ways, the Linn was definitely quieter than a stock L75.) It’s as well to remember that in 76 the Linn wasn’t being compared to idler drives because there weren’t any to compare it to. I know a few still existed, but a stock 75, while it has something, couldn’t hope to be in the same ball-park as a Linn/Grace/Supex. It won’t even work with a decent cartridge for goodness sakes. No dealers would have an EMT on hand to use, and the SP25 would have self destructed at the thought of it, after the crowd stopped laughing.
The manufacturers weren’t conning us about idler drives, they were conning us about direct drives. And these are what the Linn found easy to beat. The Linn bearing was the jewel in the crown then, and still is.
Linn were fighting the same war that is being waged today, and we should thank them for that. If the vinyl high end had not existed in 1985, then vinyl would have disappeared completely by now. It’s not their fault they didn’t know about idlers, no-one did, or more importantly wanted to! The unfortunate result of Linn winning the war then, is that today the collective conscious as regards vinyl has a belt drive bias. Again you can’t blame people for that, we all signed up for it, and having paid our dues we think it must be right.
So having stated that the new (direct drive) technology was a mirage, and belt drive done right is where it’s at, they did all they could do. Think about it and you’ll see that the flag has been kept flying, long enough for us to re-look at an even older technology.
Like it or not, if they hadn’t done that we would not be having this conversation.
PS I like playing my 60s 45s on a Lenco.
