Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?


I have just acquired a 32 year old JVC/Victor TT-101 DD turntable after having its lesser brother, the TT-81 for the last year.
TT-101
This is one of the great DD designs made at a time when the giant Japanese electronics companies like Technics, Denon, JVC/Victor and Pioneer could pour millions of dollars into 'flagship' models to 'enhance' their lower range models which often sold in the millions.
Because of their complexity however.......if they malfunction.....parts are 'unobtanium'....and they often cannot be repaired.
128x128halcro
Lewm,

Guess I got a Super Deal on SP10MK3, it was however in pretty rough cosmetic condition, and of course all the electronics needed upgrading as well - and I do agree with you its a magnificent table.


Good Listening

Peter
Frank,
What’s your point?
The weekend that men landed on the moon, in 1969, my then wife and I were on the way to Martha’s Vineyard for a vacation. We had stopped in New Haven to visit my grandmother, and my wife would not leave until she could find a copy of that Sunday’s NYT: "Men Walk On Moon", it said. I was already an audiophile at that time, albeit with very little money to spend. I already knew then that I did not care for the Dyna PAS3X preamplifier.
Quartz resonates at a constant frequency. So, what is your point? Other crystalline materials could have been chosen by audio engineers, but quartz was chosen instead. By the way, quartz referencing did not come into the turntable world for a few more years after 1969.  Note that in the thread you cite, the ad for Technics talks about the original SP10 and the SL1100 and 1200.  The turntables in that ad did not use a quartz reference; that came along later with the SP10 Mk2, etc.  So, again, WTF?
Dear lewm, a possible point is that you, perhaps one of the wisest and more experienced on this site has responded to things that I stand on and that are actual. Most on this site seem to take too much for granted with-out knowing the history that is pointing to the now and the future.
Good-gosh, if nothing else, it should be told. And ,let us all not forget that there are owners of systems in this world that aren’t even aware of sites such as this site and others that are enjoying even better equipment.

These folks simply have budgets and systems that are too great and large to even talk about it on the web, they simply enjoy themselves.

It seems I must ask for forgiveness for even being on the site with my antiqued system. That old system of mine just happens to be what was the TOTL 44 years ago at the height of The Golden Age" of Hi-Fi’.

Is there a division of this site for ’elders’ that I could join?
One mustn’t forget that anything that’s new and great today, will, with-in a short period of time will also be history/vintage.
I’m happy to read of folks who embrace an old table as the OP is speaking of and can even have discussions here with-out being lambasted.
Good thing is for me, the whole experience of trying to join this sited and being met with vitriol replies has inadvertently caused me to do more listening to my music/system, which is better than wasting my time on the inter-web. Everyone would agree, it’s my choice. Nonetheless, I happy to see a member speak of his equipment.

At this point of over three quarters of my life interested in electronics shouldn’t be wasted on the inter-web either whatever the connection. 
I was there not too long after the beginning of the whole ’hi-fi’, stereo world’s on-set.
This is why I posted my opinion.
fm


I got riled up because I could perceive no "opinion" in the context of our first post.  In fact, I could perceive no point of view at all except to point out the fact that Quartz is an organic material.  Anyway, I do apologize for my tone.  I may have been too paranoid.  My father put together a nice monaural system for my mom, in the early 1950s, even though he had no particular interest in either music or audio electronics; she was an opera and classical music lover, however.  I grew up surrounded by her music and her singing; she was also an accomplished opera singer.  He built a cabinet for what must have been an Altec Lansing 604, and he bought a Harman Kardon Festival mono receiver. There was a Garrard record changer as a signal source.  By the 1960s, I was a jazz buff listening in college to whatever I could afford.

"Antique" systems are welcome here, as far as I am concerned, and I think I can speak for most others.  I've got a system based on Beveridge direct-drive electrostatics; Beveridge the company went out of business in 1982 or thereabouts.  It is fronted by a Quicksilver preamplifier that dates to the mid-1980s, and the phono source is either a Lenco idler-drive or a Victor TT101, both of which are early 1980s or earlier in the case of the Lenco.  The biggest, maybe the only, improvements in audio equipment since the 1980s, IMO, has to do with solid state gear, and only because of better transistors and ICs now available compared to "then".  CDPs are a whole lot better now than were the earliest products, IMO. Certainly, speaker design may be said to have gone down hill in many respects, even though the technology for making drivers has made advances in terms of computer-aided design (CAD) and 3D shaping.  Yet, I don't hear any miraculous new speakers these days, when I go to shows.
frankmarsi, we may be similar in age, although I expect I have a couple of years on you.  But like Lew, I was left wondering about the purpose of your post.

In fact I suspect these audio sites are the playground for far more folks in the second halves of their lives than for younger ones.  For interest in "antique" systems you might like to visit the Vintage section at Audio Asylum.

For myself I built Dynakits for ST-70, PAS-3 and FM-3 in 1966 as part of my first stereo.  That included a Dual 1009.  Today there are still those who admire that Dual but I can't say I'd ever seek one out again.  Still, I just ordered new tweeters to upgrade a mint pair of Dyna A-25s I intend to set up in the den/office after I move.  I'm also looking at current upgraded versions of the ST-70 to drive them.  So again like Lew, there are many who have not forgotten the merits of quality older components.

Oh yes, I'm also awaiting a Dual 1229 from a friend who bought it new but no longer uses it to install in that den system.  I'll reserve my Technics SP-10 Mk 2A for my main system.