@luisa31There are many wonderful vintage tables available at affordable prices. The Victor and Luxman are part of the elite club and can be difficult to find. Denon, Yamaha, Technics, Pioneer all produced great tables in the golden age and many avail. I have both the Victor and Luxman. They are glorious two arm tables.
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.
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.
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** From my notes about pitch control on vintage DD turntables * Some people don’t understand why there is a pitch control on High-End turntables, for most of them pitch associated with DJ turntables only. In reality pitch control is an amazing feature for reference class turntables and critical listening sessions too! Musicians will get the idea quicker ... JVC/Victor engineers explained very well why there is a special pitch control on TT-101: "The pitch, "A" is standardized at 440Hz according to international standards, and is the standard for all western musical instruments. In other words, the tuning of all instruments of the orchestra is based on this pitch. But in reality, the basic tuning pitch of each orchestra differs due to the instrumentation and individual characteristics of each orchestra, as well as the personality of the conductor. The diagram shows such differences by orchestra. Most of the pitches range within +/- 6Hz of 400Hz. To reproduce these subtly different pitches, a quality turntable with highly accurate rotation is required. Another important requirement is the possibility of minute speed adjustment. If the speed of a turntable could be adjusted to the individual pitch used by an orchestra while at the same time remaining controlled by a quartz-locked servo system, the benefits of flexibility and precision would be significant from a musicological viewpoint. For this reason the TT-101 is equipped with built-in speed-control facilities which can adjust the pitch in 1Hz steps within a range of +/- 6Hz or 440Hz. The difference of pitches between master tape recorders and disc record cutting machines has been intentionally ignored before but now the speed of a record can be adjusted to match the original pitch of the orchestra, even if the master was recorded differently from the original performance. For example, a performance of the NHK Symphony Orchestra on the record can be adjusted to match the pitch of the same performance on a record by the London Symphony Orchestra, for the enjoyment of critical comparison. The "A" key of a piano in your home is usually tuned to 440Hz. When you practice the piano while playing back a record, you can adjust the pitch of the record, to be in perfect tune with your piano." ( *all images of tt-101 taken by myself) |
For this reason the TT-101 is equipped with built-in speed-control facilities which can adjust the pitch in 1Hz steps within a range of +/- 6Hz or 440Hz. exactly, on the brochures of the time and on the review of an old Stereoplay they emphasized this particularity. |
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