So many great golden era DD tables out there, what do you recommend for $1000?

Edgewear posted

"As far as I know Micro never moved from direct drive to belt drive. They simultaniously offered a range of direct drives (DD-series) and belt drives (BL-series). That being said, they went much higher end with belt drives (RX- and SX-series) than they ever did with direct drives. This might suggest that they had stronger faith in the capabilities of belt drive.
There's one point in their 80's catalogue where direct drive and belt drive sort of converged. This is the 1500-series platform, which offered the DDX-1500 direct drive (their top direct drive model) as well as the RX-1500 belt drive, which was the entry level of the big Micro's. It could be upgraded to include all the features also found in the highest end models, including gunmetal plateaus, air bearing and vacuum disc stabilizer. It would be interesting to compare the DDX-1500 with the basic RX-1500 (with aluminum plateau and the motor drive attached to the unit), using the same armboard, tonearm and cartridge. This would be a fair 'shoot out' between direct drive and belt drive, all else being equal. Has anyone ever done this?

The designer of the top belt (or string) drive Micro's founded a new company called TechDas, modernising his old designs with current technology. This would suggest that belt drive is - and perhaps always was - his preferred technology. He's now on a 'world tour' with the ultimate AirForce Zero. This monstrosity makes the old top Micro SX-8000 II look like an entry level table......"


Interesting post but Micro Seiki out sourced there direct drive motors for a lot of there tables. They did not have the resources like JVC did. So it's no surprise that they concentrated on belt drive tables when the manufactures gave up on high end DD after CD's came out. I wish the CD era had been held off for a few years longer, who knows what was in the pipeline.
I recently picked up a JVC QL-A7 myself. What a beautiful table, easy to use, dead silent and it just sounds awesome. Best 250 bucks I ever spent on a TT.
BillWojo

I found it on AK's Bartertown. One of the members had it and I expressed interest. He brought it along to an AK get together at a members house and I was stoked, it looked beautiful. He had advertised it for 300 bucks and when I reached into my pocket he said to just give him 250, he was glad to see it go to a good home. He has a bizzillion tables and other gear, he is just trying to make room.
I fell in love with it's looks but when the stylus hit the record, it was like WOW.
I never gave JVC much thought before this came up for sale, after researching it I knew it should be good but I wasn't prepared for this. It really is a nice table.

BillWojo

Can’t have his number until it gets safe enough for me to go through his stacks of gear. LOL In the US they sold the QL-A7 in a piano black finish, the Japanese market had the wood finish. So it is a 120vac model. The black finish looks very classy.
Aside from very light scuffing on the dustcover and a slightly drooping tonearm stub it is in excellent cosmetic shape. Even the feet look good.
I love the UA-7045 tonearm and the way they incorporated the semi auto mechanism into it. It uses a sensor with a light curtain to detect the end of a record, that fires a solenoid to lift up the arm. When playing, the arm is totally divorced of any mechanical parts that might influence it. Very smart design.I’m on the look out for spare headshells for it. It came with the OEM headshell so I have that. Do you know what other model JVC TT came with the same one?
I have several Denon DL-103 carts. A stock DL-103, a retipped DL-103s with a fine elliptical and a DL-103 in a wood body with a hyperelliptical. The later two carts I just picked up from VAS after he serviced them. Using a AU-320 SUT. So far I’m just using the stock DL-103, I want to get some play time on it before switching. I think these tables are way under valued for what you receive. I doubt the same performance in a new table could be purchased without spending more that a few thousand dollars. Awesome motor package with a really good tonearm, the plinth is the weak point but can be fixed with some reinforcement underneath.
My buddy has been into JVC tables for a while now, he just picked up a QL-Y66F in a trade. Someday I hope to hear that in his setup. Now I understand what he was talking about.
BillWojo