Turntable upgrade recommendations: SME vs AMG vs Technics vs other

I had a Nottingham Analogue Spacedeck turntable for many years. Then I switched to vintage Lenco L78 on a heavy birch plywood plinth. I was amazed how much more accurately the Lenco idler drive conveys all the nuances of the rhythm compared to Nottingham! Especially the difference obvious on classical piano and Jazz built on small rhythm nuances like Modern Jazz Quartet. In addition bass texture was far better on Lenco as well instrument separation. Then I bought a vintage direct drive EMT 948.
In my opinion, belt drive technology is initially flawed. A decent turntable can be made, but it will cost more than a good quality idler or direct drive. And as result of less accurate PRAT reproduction, belt drive will always inferiors in musicality.

Hi @terry9 ,

Motor turns platter in jerks just in cheap DJ DD turntables like Technics 1200. Top Japanese and German DD don’t have this issue. For example, EMT 950 motor (DC PWM) works so smooth that is has super light platter.

All lacker cutter are DD. All vinyl we have is produced with these cutters.

I compared Nottingham Spacedeck to much cheaper Lenco L78 from 70x. And Lenco overperformed it.

Regards,

Alex

Hi @mijostyn ,

Lenco Turntable is a genius piece of Swiss engineering. If you add heavy plinth and upgraded tonearm it over performs any mid priced belt drive turntable.
One of my friends who had used dozens of great turntables used Lenco L70 in the same time with Micro Seiki 1500 and liked it no less than Micro Seiki. In my system Lenco L78 exchanged a decent turntable Nottingham Analogue Spacedeck. Another friend prefered Lenco L75 by miles over his Pro Ject 6.9.

The issue with Lenco and most other vintage is that it is not plug and play. Sadly, a lot of people who use vintage don't have engineering scils and audio experience to get truly good results.

Regards,

Alex

Hi @lewm ,

Here is a bad thing about a spring-suspended DD turntable: The energy put into rotation of the platter is also going to twist the chassis on its suspension, in the direction opposite to platter rotation (counter-clockwise).

EMT had solution for this issue for "light weight models 948, 938. Look at page 5.

Model 950 had a very light patter and very heavy 70kg chassis.

Sorry for my bad English. English is my fourth language.

I think a heavy platter weak motor combination can work only in super ideal conditions. Even rubber belt compliance uniformity can be an important factor. Any deviations of speed in such a system fixes very slowly that cause WOW and flutter. It leads to decline in PRAT accuracy. And in serious music PRAT is one of the most critical factors. For example the main difference between the great and average piano player is PRAT.
I have a friend who is musicant and audiophile two in one. He is a flute player, soloist and conservatorium flute and piano teacher.
He had Sona Cosmos and Thorense 124 turntables. But when his friend bought EMT 950 and he heard how EMT 950 musically superior to Sota, he ran to order EMT 950 on eBay.

The Russian nouveau riches have a proverb "Loot triumphs over evil".

But it doesn't work in audio!!!

$400K system can sound great but it also can sound horrible. It depends more from a person who put this system together vs money spent. This person has to have knowledge, skills, experience and taste.

When I visited audiophile homes and audio shows, I didn't find correlation between sound quality and money spent. On the contrary, for some reason the most expensive systems on audio shows I visited always sounded bad, at least for my taste.