Reason for buying old/classic turntables

There's a lot of BS sorounding the improvements to turntables over the last thirty years. It is, after all, a wheel, and we've had that down for 3000 years or so. Advances in bearings and damping are real, but for most applications a table that was great thirty years ago is still going to be great. Witness the popularity of vintage Thorens TD-124s and the like. Having said that, I think the guy with the $3000 SP10 is crazy. Some people think that because it would cost XX if it were new today that thats how much they should charge for it even though its really old. Personally I use a twenty-year old Sota and it is competative with most of today's tables. Do a lot of research before you jump in with big dollars.

Belt drive is going to be impacted more by variables like platter mass. My Sota has a fifteen pound platter and so once it overcomes inertia it is very stable at speed. A lighter platter would be more susceptible variations in engine speed, belt imperfections,etc. An inexpensive belt drive could very well be bested by a quality DD, but like anything else its all in the quality of the execution. Theoretically DD might have advantages, but it seems belts have won out by trial and error as the better solution.

Both types of tables do still use round wheels though.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there are a lot of audio companies that are putting more effort into building a good turntable than the Big Three put into building a good car. Have you driven a Dodge Stratus lately? Yeesh!

Sota in the hi-fi. Honda in the garage.

Look, the basic technology of draging a needle through a groove is essentially the same as it was when Edison did it with tin foil. Sure all the stuff is more sophisticated, more refined, better sounding, etc., but those improvements are based mainly on the associated parts: carts, wiring and amplification. A turntable is still just a wheel on a bearing. There is no reason a TT from forty years ago shouldn't sound as good as a table built today. With the possible exception of some of the repeling magnets even the bearings are esentially the same. Its not magic new technology.

Sorry Audiofeil, but I've got to respectfully disagree. Precision machining, especially for something as simple as a wheel and bearing has been pretty well sorted out to perfection for quite some time. I'll grant you improvements from materials, cartridges and associated equipment, but a wheel is just a wheel and there are some great sounding old wheels out there. I'm not suggesting that a lot of new equipment doesn't sound good. A lot of it sounds great, but I honeslty can't accept the insistance that new turntables have achieved some breakthrough in technology.

And I'm playing a record right now, and as best I can tell, the sound is being generated by a needle being dragged through a groove. "Mr. Watson. Come here, I need you."

Don't you guys have friendly arguements with relatives over the holidays? Can't be nice all the time.

We buy 'em cause we like 'em!