Reason for buying old/classic turntables

I will frankly admit that I have become smitten with vintage tts only in the last year after acquiring a Lenco in a "giant direct-coupled" plinth. The Lenco was immediately perceived to sound better than my Notts Analog Hyperspace, so the Notts had to go. I then started to read the threads and the websites devoted to Garrard, Lenco, Technics, etc, with much more enthusiasm, thinking that if the Lenco is so excellent, what else am I missing? Vintage tts are a natural link to my lifelong hobby of collecting and restoring post WWII sports cars, mostly Porsches. Except in this case, I am wondering whether there is a real performance super bargain to be found out there. (An old Porsche will not ever be state of the art in perfomance per se.) Plus, the vintage tts are relatively cheap and are at the very least stable in value. So what do you have to lose? Now I've got a second Lenco, a Garrard 301, two Technics SP10s (a MkII and a IIA), and a Denon DP80. Once I decide on how to plinth each of these babies, I'm going to compare each one to my functional Lenco and decide for myself which one I like best. I'll probably discard the tts that fall short, but I expect to keep at least two up and running. If I could find an SP10 MkIII or a Pioneer P3 or P3a for reasonable prices, I would buy those too.

There are moments, when driving a late 50's Porsche at 9/10ths, when you're in the groove, that really can't be equalled and certainly not beaten by any modern sports car, even a modern Porsche. Something has been lost, just like in the LP vs CD comparison. Modern cars are heavier and have those big fat tires which give a less pleasant ride quality than the old dangerous skinny tires on old sports cars. In my Spyder at 90 mph in a drift you almost felt like you were floating on air in the best fun ride possible. Can an idler or a dd table from yesteryear provide an analogous unique experience that gets you closer to the music? I think maybe yes, with the generous application of modern ideas on plinths, tonearms, cartridges thrown into the mix.

Mrjstark, It's really a question of whether the highest forms of modern technology are being applied to tt development at all. Perhaps the Monaco Grand Prix tt is an example that would tend to answer the question in the affirmative, but there are not too many others in the same ballpark. I guess I would add the Raven and Brinkmann products from Germany and the Saskia, the Walker and the Teres/Galibier efforts in this country. Possibly Transrotor and maybe a few others (Caliburn) could be included. These are all megabuck products. But the majority of the formulaic tts that are being churned out today by the gazillions certainly do not stretch the envelope in any way and are not technically any better, if as good, as the oldies. (Think platter resting on a ball bearing in an MDF plinth powered by a tiny outboard motor via a stretchy belt; for 50% more dough you get a platter that is 50% thicker and heavier but is not technically any different in any way from the base model.) Certainly CAD-controlled processes are capable of generating parts that are way lower in tolerance than what was possible back in the 70s or 80s, but I don't see where that technology is being applied other than among the makers I cited and a few more I may have missed. I was very skeptical myself about idlers and dd tables, until I heard the Lenco in my system and read the testimony of others I trust as regards upgraded dd tts.

Mrjstark, We are in the same boat. One reason that I am tinkering with these old tts, idler and dd types, not belt-drives, is that I have heard all the best belt-drives that cost less than $5,000 and already know that my Lenco in giant plinth can equal or beat them in all respects, IMO and in my system, of course. Since I am unwilling to invest more than $5K in a modern belt-drive, the logical course is to continue to explore the limits of the old tts. This is an added factor, in addition to my innate affinity for old stuff, that drives me. However, I take with a grain of salt any single report of one tt sounding better than another, unless I've heard it myself. (This is in reference to the notion that a Garrard smoked a Brinkmann, etc.)

Ketchup, I would say there's nothing very great about the build quality of a Lenco L75. The drive system is completely novel and full of potential problems, but it works very very well, if you perform a few mods here and there and get rid of the stock tonearm. As you say, "they simply got lucky".