Grand Prix Audio Monaco Turntable

Speed accuracy, speed stability, lack of stylus drag, lack of temp drift and other variables was all overcome in all intents of purpose by late 1970s' to mid 190's Japan Inc. direct drives, especially quartz locked ones.

Ability to spin an LP with a high level of accuracy at least to a point of being imperceptible to the human ear is nothing new. My Technics SL-1200MKII offers superlative speed performance and sped accuracy specs.

The Monaco has solved any sped issues, from there like every other turntable, cheap or expensive it's all about tuning the sound to give the end user a table that makes them happy. One will find that no table be it the $299 specials to the $100,000+ uber brands will be perfect. All will have things listeners may like or not. Of course one expects a higher priced table to basically perform better than a cheaper one, but this is not always the case. It's a black art vinyl spinning that is and price is only one loose indicator of apparent quality.

When I came back to vinyl after 16 years being without was initially brainwashed into thinking direct drive sucks. Boy was I wrong. It is not noisier than belts and it offers certain advantages no belt drive can give. I'm not saying belts can't work exceedingly well, but I am saying direct drive is not junk and has proven to work very well too. As I said Japan Inc. darn near perfected the speed performance of direct drives back in the 70's.

A great test to compare would be the Monaco vs the Teres Certus.

Teres Certus 460 looks like a nice piece of furniture for my grandfathers living room. But keeping to the discussion, those speed accuracy figures they publish are probably not measured at the platter level. Just for fun I will ask Teres this very question and see what they say. No comment about the Technics, other than I purchased 2 of them 20+ odd years ago for a friend who needed them as a discjockey for parties, you know the kind of music/rap you need to scratch to back in the 80s...

No, a great test would be, independent of course, in a top system against the Continuum Caliburn and/or RT Sirius III, but with multiple experts present.

Albert Porter and I compared his extensively rebuilt Technics SP10 sporting a SME 312 with his Walker Black Diamond, using identical Airtight PC1 cartridges. IMHO, the Walker "walked" all over the Technics in most respects EXCEPT for speed stability due to stylus drag which showed up only on one record where it was shockingly obvious. It is conceivable that the Walker could be tweeked to overcome this issue at the possible expense of isolation from the motor. That is the choice Lloyd Walker made.

A.J. Conti of Basis claims that his top of the line table, a motor controlled belt drive, compared favorably with the Technics.

My point is that to claim across the board superiority of the Monaco has more to do with religious fervor than sense.

Most Japan Inc. DD's of the late 70's and 80's had W&F with a load from a tonearm/stylus of .025%wrms or lower, .035% Din. at the platter on motor into the .008% wrms. speed error was typically .002% for most and drift from thermal temp. even lower.
I noted Certus vs Monaco because they are both pricey direct drive concepts.

Dear Piedpiper: +++++ " I compared his extensively rebuilt Technics SP10 sporting a SME 312 with his Walker Black Diamond, using identical Airtight PC1 cartridges. IMHO, the Walker "walked" all over the Technics in most respects " +++++

IMHO till you compare two different TT's with the same tonearm/cartridge combination your statement is not a precise and value one and more a " religious fervor that sense ".

I know the Walker one ( not so very well than Albert ) that is a great belt drive TT example ( that btw has the same speed stability/accuracy spec than the SP 10 ) but unfortunately we can't compare against any other TT because the Walker don't accept other tonearm.

Right now I'm running one of my SP 10 with out plinth and pneumatic AT footers directly in the Technics TT base, I already try it with Dynavector 505, Audiocraft AC 3300/4400 and MS MAX 237 ( with several cartridges ): awesome performance, better than the Walker? who knows: we need to mount any of those tonearms/cartridges ( including the SME 312 ) in the Walker and compare.

What I can say is that the SP-10 very " old " design ( 1982 ) is a top contender here and now after those many years that were build!!!!!!!! and still spinning/running flawless!!!!, my hat off to these Matushita/Panasonic/Technics great people.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.