Top ten DD turntables of all time?

Rod, Just for clarification, I was referring to the Technic's SP 10, the Kenwood from the L series (07?) and I forgot to mention the Nakamichi Dragon, which could even compensate for off center holes in LP's. You asked for the Best with no indicated reservations of value. I forgot about the Micro Seki tables mentioned by TWL. I would include them as well in my vintage list. Now if you just want good vintage TT's thats another list.

kenwood L07D would make that list, too; special emphasis s/b placed on the Technics SP10 Mk II and Mk III as they were a material improvement over the earlier SP10 Mk 1 (if it was even called that).

It would be interesting to see a SP10 Mk II/III in a properly designed plinth and a quality platter.

I've had my Goldmund Studietto w/ JVC quartz-lock motor and SME V arm for almost 16 years now, and wouldn't part with it for anything. I know there are those who dismiss the Studietto, but I'll betcha they've never heard one with a great arm and without the springs. That's right -- I don't think sorbothane was available 16 years ago, but replacing the springs with sorbothane half spheres results in a mechanical system that's almost completely dead (great bass punch and clarity.) Just set it on a wall shelf, which is where all unsprung (and most sprung) TT's belong in my opinion, and you're good to go.

I recently lubricated the platter/motor spindle/bearing with van den Hul zirconium-oxide doped oil and there is absolutely no audible bearing/motor noise -- even at high volume levels playing silent grooves. And the platter speed has always been smooth and dead accurate.

For a beautifully designed website devoted to the DD TT, go to: http://de.geocities.com/bc1a69/index_eng.html

By the way, I seem to recall that the Goldmund Reference is a belt drive TT.

Rod1957, in direct drive turntables of the vintage sort, the platter is actually part of the motor, and the spindle bearing is actually also the motor bearing.

Since motors vibrate, and since the motor bearing is not nearly built to as close-tolerance as a normal TT main bearing, there is unwanted movement in the platter of most of these vintage DD designs.

Additionally, there are spinning magnets(under the platter - part of the motor) which are very close to the cartridge at the inner part of the record. Since the platters are also metal, there is not much stopping magnetic effects of these spinning magnets on the cartridge magnetic fields.

Third, most of the vintage DD designs use a quartz-lock speed controller with a very lightweight platter, which results in "speed hunting", in a fairly audible "flutter" frequency, and gives unnatural sound overall, compared to other turntables.

Fourth, most vintage DD TT's were mass-market designs and cheaply produced out of plastic, and were never really anything out-of-the-ordinary, even when they were new. Most of the arms were quite poor(or at best - adequate), and sufficed primarily for the low cost MM cartridges that were expected to be placed on them.

Let's face it, these TT's were the "Volkswagen Beetle" of the time, and never were even intended to be thought of as anything very good. They were mass-market plastic equivalents of today's "Coby" CD player for $24.95

The better ones, like Micro Seiki and the higher level Denon, and the Technics SP10(and yes, even the SL1200) were a bit more expensive, aimed at a higher performance market, and did sound better than the cheap ones. However, ultimately they faded away as the belt-drive revolution took over and killed most of them off.

You can say what you want about belt-drives, but they did kill off most DD tables permanently. This was not an accident.

The Dual 701. One of the best of its time and very hard to find.