Why hasnt a turntable manufacturer produced a table with automatic tonearm return/shutoff?


I'm listening to my old Technics 1700 turntable, which has the tonearm return/ shutoff mechanism. It's one of the reasons I don't upgrade. The idea that you have to get up to retrieve the cartridge and turn off the machine makes little sense when the technology has been there for years. I know the issue of the mechanism introducing sound into the table, but it seems to me that the mechanism can be isolated and kept off until the record ends. What gives?

kavakat1

I had a Denon dp 300f laying around and my niece expressed interest in vinyl. She was happy with it, but she didn’t like the fact that it automatically started and returned the tonearm. Some kind of hipster thing. 

 

Why not of great interest to audiophiles. An add on to a top end table?? The convenience is substantial.  

@kavakat1 I don't see a substantial convenience or really any convenience of substance. When a record ends I cue the arm and return it to the arm rest. No big deal. It takes all of two seconds or so. OTOH: adding a mechanism and logic to the turntable for auto-return of the arm just increases cost unnecessarily, and adds moving parts that can resonate, vibrate and introduce unwanted noise into the system. The added complexity just isn't worth it. And it's not going to damage your stylus if it plays the runout groove for a bit until you get up and cue the arm.

High end turntables are focused on the absolute best possible sound, adding a mechanical device to lift and/or return adds noise and reliability problems. 

I have a B&O 1900, built in 1976 fully automatic. I won’t but a manual table due to the inconvenience of placing the tonearm and having to get up when album side is over., I play 1/2 an album at night then switch to streamer. There are a few automatic TT’s made today Dual, Denon, Project, Thorens..