I'll just use this thread to rant about the lack of semi-auto TTs anywhere in high-end audio. While even luddite audiophiles expect a remote for their CD transport or even a volume/mute remote for their preamp, why is nobody else complaining that their expensive non-replaceable MC stylus is digging a trench through the endless groove once a record completes and maybe nobody is around at the time??
For a fraction of the price of that add-on electronic motor controller, silver tonearm wiring or vibration-damping shelf, the simplest of electro-mechanical components nicely integrated into the TT and tonearm will lift the arm and stop the motor once the record ends and interrupts a photodiode. How hard is that? Make it a modular unit that can be removed if it offends the sensibilities of some. VPI et al, are you listening??
This is the main reason I'm still using an '80s Thorens semi-auto when the rest of my rig is two decades newer...
For a fraction of the price of that add-on electronic motor controller, silver tonearm wiring or vibration-damping shelf, the simplest of electro-mechanical components nicely integrated into the TT and tonearm will lift the arm and stop the motor once the record ends and interrupts a photodiode. How hard is that? Make it a modular unit that can be removed if it offends the sensibilities of some. VPI et al, are you listening??
This is the main reason I'm still using an '80s Thorens semi-auto when the rest of my rig is two decades newer...