When will we ever hear turntables demoed fairly?


To my amazement after 45years we still have no way of ascertaining the sound of turntable designs.Every stereo store has tables set up with different arms and different cartridges.How then is anyone to determine what is contributing to the sound when an apple is being compared to an orange and then to a pear.It's absurd and to make matters worse you are listening to different phono stages and amps and and speakers.If you can't isolate what is contributing to what what's the point.End of rant.

brucegel
45 years back there wasn't any hype of playing with arms/headshells and other turntable tweaks.
there was only one standard turntable with stock arm that's it.
there was broadcast turntables that had capability of swapping arms mostly from Shure Brothers.
as to fair demo there won't be any no matter how 'proper' it's demoed. you're listening to the combination of arm/deck and cartridge. on decks with headshell standard mount arms you can simply swap headshells pretty quick to a/b between cartridges, but that's about it.
still not sure whatchya'll talkin'bout.
Here's the point of my original statement.That reviews are essentially nonsense,hyperbolic drivel that is designed to really do one thing.Keep the hamster on the wheel(that's you).If technical data were the sole criteria we wouldn't have this highly variable mess of designs.But it's not because there is an aesthetic injected into designs.Well tempered turntables vs technics direct drives just to name one large differential in design.Add the impossibility of fair AB comparisons and it's just a hot mess of cash flying every opinionated which way.Just one man's opinion.

Let's be fair, it is hard to compare tables/arms/cartridges. But I know one thing - German turtables are severely overpriced, go for British.
So you have a couple tables set up exactly like each other. Terrific. I wonder how they would sound with your phono stage----preamp---speakers----cables----


Just ain't going to happen brucegel 

Just get a doc so much cheaper and could you really hear the difference.
Perhaps but does it sound better, perhaps perhaps not.