What makes for a "great" turntable?

My 20 year old Linn Axis is neither lightweight nor the heaviest table, but it's the heaviest I've ever owned, plus it sits on a big, 60 pound, big honking solid oak coffee table that I picked up back then for $30 in a used furniture store down south.

I put a $10 Thorens arm lift on it when I bought it that still always lifts the arm when done without fail.

It sits about 4 feet forward and to the left of my left full range speaker. My system also sits in the basement of my home on a thin padded carpet on top of the solid concrete foundation of the house.

I can play at any SPL with no feedback or other nasty noises in play. It's been a real keeper with only those two tweaks (oak table and lift) at $40 total.

Personally, I think there are many very excellent sounding table rigs available out there without going off the deep end in regards to cost.

The turntable is one device in my system though where I would admit to looks as being a factor for me. If I have to chose a replacement someday from among many good tables, I might well go for the one that just looks coolest to me, as long as I know it is technically sound, much like buying a new car. Convenience and low maintenance is also a big factor for me.

The other thing would be to make sure it has a tonearm that can work well with the low compliance Denon DL103R cartridge, which I have zero interest in switching from.

I guess my philosophy summarized is once you find the right cartridge, build the rest of the phono rig in accordance around it....and make sure it is easy to use and will last and look nice along the way.

What about the size of the table in regards to being able to support longer tonearms for more accurate tracking of records start to finish?

Aren't longer tonearms better in this regard in general?

Suspension

I believe that Turntables has been in stagnation in the development in the last many years.
Arms, Cartridges and RIAA's has moved on, though.

When talking about high-end TT's, today, almost all TT's on the market has big mass, huge platter, stiff standing - no hanging, no plinth.

Out of the box, most of these moderne monsters, mainly sold for the design, sound competitive to CD.
The are all easy to live with, easy and uncritical to set-up.

No matter where you put it, the accoustic feedback is the same.
Not gone, but very hard to influence on.

General, they all play fine and...................well...............clinical.

To a certain limit.
This limit is, fairly enough, plentyful and extended beyond most people's gear capabilities and maybe even beyond what some ears might catch.

But if you acknowledge this limit, you will also come to the conclusion that these modern, stiff, huge, heavy TT's never will be able to get beyond this limit by tweaking, modifying or alligning.

No doubt that some of these modern TT's are fitting well in designer homes.

The better suspended TT's can be hell to live with.

When, at last, well alligned and adjusted, You better leave it alone.
At Least until next cartridge change.

If you are the kind of guy that needs to play-and-tweak all the time, this is not the TT for you.

It's important to place suspended TT's on a stable surface like for instance a brick-wall mounted dedicated TT-shelf, put it behind a curtain, put it in another room than the speakers, surround it by vaccuum.
;-)

Combine a well suspended TT with SME 3009/Alphason HR-100S or other S- or J-arms and you will miss most music below 50 Hz.

Use well suspended TT's with tangential arms is a no-go unless you build yourself with this in mind from the start.

Radial arms with angle correction are ok, though.

Put a wrong mat on the platter and the music turns into mud.

Some of these well suspended TT's was launched with fragile motor control or rumbling motors.

But can you eliminate these forementioned "handicaps" in the motor control, can you dampen the noise from the motor, and can you match the correct combination of platter, mat, arm, cartridge and if you, after this effort, can get the rare skilled hands of craftsmanship to adjust and allign everything from vtf, vat, zenith, azimuth, overhang, tracking angle etc. etc. and, very important, the hanging suspension to a very soft point............................................. ..............

Then a well "hung" suspended TT can do magic and play the music in a way like some tube aficionados are experiencing when the best result of matching gear, selected tubes, adjustments of azimuth, right amount of SolidState influence and everything else comes to nirvana..........................and this will be slightly better than the normal Solid State solution, just like the well suspended TT can perfom slightly better than the normal stiff designer rig.

However, tube amps can also, like the well suspended TT's, have a tendency to be not easy to live with.

The Sound from these well suspended-hanging-subchassis TT's is not only precise and well defined, it exudes room mediation, stereo perspective, deeeeep bass with precision and attack, a very open top like if a piece of clothes was removed from where the tweeters were positioned, the midrange will introduce human voices like if there were singing in your living room without amplification, extremely natural.

The Music will simply be transduced from the groove and transmitted to the room in an intensely and heartfelt way, cuddling and nursing the listener and creating joy and pleasure.

I wonder what was happening in all those years while production of TT's was put to a stand-still because people were fooled to believe in the digital revolution?
But it, obviously, didn't serve this niche well..........that is an audible fact.
What became of magic?

"dolph"

That's a passionate response Dolph and in a way, I know what you mean.
However on this issue, we'll have to agree to 'disagree'?
I believe the last 10-15 years have seen some significant advances in the thought and design of turntables, arms and cartridges (particularly LOMCs).
Whilst invoking the analogy of suspended decks and tube amps will put a lot of people on your side, it is rather suspect?
While I'm happy to accept an electrical signal preferring the linearity of tubes to the on/off nature of transistors, I do not believe a turntable prefers to 'move'.....which it certainly will do if it is suspended?
The 'softness', 'warmth' and 'magic' you perceive in your suspended turntables are really a 'colouration', 'distortion' and 'loss of information'.
Many people prefer this romanticism to 'fidelity' and good luck to them.....whatever 'rocks your boat'?
But to bemoan the loss of 'magic'?............you really need to hear the Raven AC-3, Rockport Sirius, Walker Proscenium or Clearaudio Statement in a fine home system to re-discover the magic......the magic of 'fidelity'.

We disagree to agree.

However, we seem to disagree to disagree that arms and cartridges have moved on in development.

Don't think I find romance in the ultimate sound welcome.
My preference is mastertapes played on 1/2-track 15ips Lyrec machines.
Doesn't get better no matter how much money you throw after TT's, arms and cartridges.

I will agree to disagree that my describtion can be explained with colouration, distortion and loss of information.

The trick is not that the hanging suspended TT moves.
The trick is that what's carrying the LP and doing the grooving is NOT moving.

The TT's you mention can each buy several cars from new.
I did audition two of them.
I chose different.

"dolph"