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Sell Me Your Women, Your Children, Your Vintage Turntable...

Ok I’m trying to understand the appeal of buying something like an old Garrard 301 or an elderly Technics all trussed up in a shiny new plinth, versus something manufactured in the 21st century by people not wearing clogs.

Surely modern gear has to perform better, dollar for dollar? It isn’t like these restored Garrards are exactly cheap, i was looking at one for almost $11k yesterday on Reverb. The internals looked like something out of a Meccano set.
 I ought to be more in tune with the past, I’m almost 60 and wear bell bottoms, but the style of the older TTs just doesn’t do it for me. Now then, my Dr. Feickert Volare had a look that was hardly futuristic, but that’s about as retro as I’d prefer to go.
All that said... I will buy one of these old buggers if it genuinely elevates performance. 
With $10k available for table and arm, on the new or used market, how would you splash the cash?

Rooze 
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Showing 2 responses by chakster

chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Different strokes for different folks, some people have no taste in my opinion. Dr.Feickert’s design is OK, unlike most of the modern turntables.

But Garrard 301 Hammertone is one of the most beautiful turntables, simplicity and minimalism in design is not for everyone. This is state of the art classics!

In a modern plinth like this (many different veneer available) it’s still great, very expensive, but it’s beautiful.

Another example of retro and new is Torqueo Audio turntables like this.

*Most of the new high-end turntables can quickly win my prize for the ugliest design ever, look at the most expensive modern high-end turntables like this :))






chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Improvements is the illness of audiophiles, there are vintage turntables like Luxman PD-444 with ZERO requirements for improvement! There is NOTHING like than made today for reasonable price, nothing. Read about it. The market value today is probably at least $3-4k. I’m a lucky user of a pair in my system. When you say "dollar for dollar" it’s NOT about modern turntables, they are all overpriced (even the lowest quality turntables are overpriced compared to much better vintage classics).

Garrard cult is very BAD example of vintage turntables in terms of price, they are definitely overpriced when refurbished by professionals. 
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