Vintage Turntables (1971-1983)

We’ve spent the better part of the morning browsing the net for vintage turntables and below are some classics from the period 1979 to 1983. Picking a favorite is hard, but if we would have to choose I think we would either have to go with the PX-2 from Yamaha or the SL-10 from Technics. Or, maybe the PD-444 from Luxman. What’s your favorite?

Technics SL-1100A (1971-1976)

A small classic in in hi-fi design and unfortunately very hard to come across.

Luxman PD-121 (1975-1979)

The Luxman PD-121 was a bestseller in Japan for the mid-end segment, but no way a classic such as the PD-444, although quite pleasing to the eye.

Technics SL-01 (1976-1977)

A well-equipped mid-end turntable, which was an iteration of the Technics line and sporting a more fancy design and features.

Luxman PD-444 (1976-1980)

This is the original Luxman turntable with direct drive. There are rarer turntables from Luxman, but still this one is pretty hard to come by. Also if you’re in the market for original arm-boards or any other spare parts you’ll have a challenge on your hands.

Technics SL-1200MK2 (1977…)

This is probably the best selling piece of equipment in the history of audio and the series is still amazingly popular today. A piece of audio history.

Marantz Model 6370Q (1978-1980)

This is a rare one and is sporting a somewhat tacky look signaling an end of an era.

Sony PS-X60 (1978-1980+)

This is the sibling of the PS-X70, but not too hard to come across. Despite missing the cool buttons on the PS-X70 this is quite a cool piece of equipment.

Yamaha PX-2 (1979-1983)

The PX-2 was a huge and rock solid turntable with a strong reputation, which was produced in high volumes, making it quite easy to obtain today.

Technics SL-10 (1981-1985)

Released after the SL-1200 the SL-10 is a classic and is an excellent turntable. Together with its programmable big brother, the SL-15, it was awarded a best product price in Japan.

Pioneer PL-707 (1982-1983)

The PL-707 was not as close to perfection as the Exclusive P3 and was partly outcompeted by the PL 505 which deliverd mostly the same at a lower price, but still quite a neat piece of design that very much was a high-end turntable.

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Tags: Turntable, Vinyl

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Record Collecting, Turntables. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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billfling

Can I still get parts for a Luxman PD 272 Direct Drive?

Paul

Thomas, I'm looking forward to this.This has been fun

Thomas

Thanks for the suggestions Paul. I'll try to put together a list of all the turntables that people have suggested in the comments to the two turntable posts we have done.

Paul

Thomas, thanks for the reply. I can tell you that there are some cool looking tables that sound like crap, and some "butt ugly" ones that sound fantastic.One that look great and sounds great are the old Empires from the late 60's early 70's Sanyo did a rip,off of them in the 70's I had one .

Thomas

@Andre we'll definitely look into making a list like that :-)

Thomas

@Paul Thanks a lot for commenting. The reason we did not write about any belt driven turntables was that the aim of the post primarily was to showcase some really cool turntables. We didn't focus much on the technical side of things. But, we'll look into getting more technical as we move on.

For those interested in some more explanation of belt-driven turntables Wikipedia has a quick explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt-drive_turntable

Thomas

@Ronny Thanks a lot for your comment. Interesting. We'll be looking into doing a list with older turntables. Not sure how long we will go back, but I imagine quite a bit of cool stuff was made during the 60's.

Paul

PS, you would not the sound of the SL 10 it was one of the first "P- Mount tables, and most of the P-mount carts were Crap. Orotofon and Audio Technica made some OK ones , but p-mounts were for ease of install, not sound, I know I was a "High Fi "buyer back then for a major stereo chain in Southern California.

Paul

What no PhlilipsGA312 or any Duals ? and most of what you showed were "Direct Drive" Why no belts?

Ronny

Ah, now, go back a few more years to even more vintage, and the Garrard 301 & 401 are quite some beasts. With rim/idler drive (which many people prefer the sound of to belt drive) they are in the same design category as the "Lenco's" from Switzerland, which had even stronger motors than the Garrards. Interestingly, a re-worked Garrard, called the "501" is now available. The guys that make the 501, have a wonderful story of attempting to make the main bearing assembly with very, very tight tolerances (compared to the original Garrard design), so tight that they reported it took the platter 3 days to run up to speed !. There you go, you CAN over do the engineering !.
Meanwhile, there's another story that Linn took a Scully record cutting lathe to bits, and re-working the main bearing on that, improved the stability and noise figures somewhat, while learning some techniques imported into the famous LP12. As it happens, a friend of mine has an LP12, which together with multiple layers of Mana stage mounting, and various "little mods" runs into a good few thousand pounds worth, BUT, which, for all that expense, can only run at 33. Of course he is the butt of many jokes !. Going back to rim/idler drive, Thornes (famous for the TD160, an LP12 "look-a-like) did actually make idler drive models. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of those to see what it sounded like !

Andrew Back

@Thomas 2001: A Space Odyssey? More like a Transcriptor (http://www.transcriptors.net/) or a Michell Gyrodec.

@nylvi Nice review, but a little pedestrian, and no Linn? How about a review of class vintage turntables of a more esoteric nature. E.g. Michell, Pink Triangle and Transcriptors etc.

Thomas

@yurisequin, two really good suggestions. Thanks for the tip. Added links to images below for others to see.

Rega Planar 3: http://tinyurl.com/an4q2r
Linn LP12: http://tinyurl.com/an2vtt

And some from B&O;: http://tinyurl.com/cgez6q

Thomas

Hi erow80, thanks a lot for commenting. No good reason for why not B&O; made it on to the list. The aim was more to put together a list of cool old turntables rather than creating a definitive list of the best turntables ever. I did some research now and if I had come across any of those made by B&O; one of them would most likely have been included. Lots of cool designs.