Vintage Japanese DD Consult and Suggestions Please

@laaudionut, "resembling DJ decks, which is not my preferred look, however. "

Yes, that is unfortunate and has caused lots of confusion for those looking at Technics products.  In fact the original SL-1200 was introduced in 1975 as a home audio product.  Through the years upgraded versions were introduced until the time where CDs severely impacted sales.  I've read Technics considered discontinuing that model, except sales suddenly increased because it was discovered by DJs which created a new market.  As a result the SL-1200 family became known informally as DJ tables due to their dominance in that field.  Now many consider it something designed for DJs rather than different purposed home audio applications.

So I considered it very unfortunate when Technics introduced the newly revised SL-1000/SP-10/SL-1200GAE a few years ago that they didn't redesign the overall appearance to differentiate it more from the older AL-1200 series.  That also seemed to drag along the DJ connotations, even while a much different design.

I overcame my own "look" prejudices more than a year ago and bought a SL-1200G.  I'm very pleased with the build and performance.

Dear @laaudionut   : I own/owned the Denon 80/75 several Technics SP10 and JVC.

You ask for better sound but TT per sé must has not any sound, it will be " dead silence ".

Now, the Today Technics motor design is a better design that any of its vintage brothers due that the motor drive is acoreless one that not even the SP10MK3 had.

I can't understand wwhy you are looking for vintage DD  where you don't have any warranty that be in perfect operation condition and where is really a " pain in the ass " fix any trouble on it when a new today Technics  IMHO is a way better option.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.

I love my JVC QLY66F.  I bought it a few years ago.  At first, I thought it was horrible.  It howled like a banshee at higher volumes.  I replaced the feet and stuffed as much plasticlay as I could inside the plinth and now it sounds and looks beautiful.  It was my main table for some time and is what I've been using with a Denon DL-301 MK2 for the last two years or so to play grade all of my records.  I've probably played well over 2,000 records on it now and am on my second DL-301 MK2.  When it was in my main system I put some much better carts on it and it responded well to those.  It has great drive and dynamics.

Raul, I more or less agree with your sentiments, but the OP specifically asked about vintage Japanese DDs. Thus he’s receiving opinions about vintage Japanese DDs. As to the SP10 mk3 vs the SP10R, JP Jones owns both and conducted a meticulous comparison test, using measurements not “I like it”. He shared some data with me, showing no significant differences between the two.

@lewm +1 “JP Jones owns both and conducted a meticulous comparison test, using measurements not “I like it”. He shared some data with me, showing no significant differences between the two."

I hear very small, both direction, mostly record and cartridge driven difference, between: SL1200MK4/SL1200GAE/SL1000MK2/SP10R..

SP10R with EPA100MK2 arm wins clearly only on excellent quality records.. for so-so records, there is no difference! as of measurements, it’s the same story, precise/low-noise-dist test vinyls is hard to find, mostly I have are lower quality than best music vinyls..