What are the hallmarks of a Great Turntable?

FrantzM

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
6,455
29
405
Hi

There has been discussion throughout the WBF about TT.There again there is a fuzz. Turntable are almost always pretty and will impress anyone including non-audiophiles. Some of them are flat-out Objet d'Art. Some utterly complex or complicated. Acrylic seems to be the royal material but so are stainless steel and other of shiny metals...
I have taken a cynical view on TT and would appreciate if someone could dispel it: One choose TT by looks and if yo can afford it you grab it :) ... I could be wrong. it seems buying TT is close to buying a jewel, say a fine watch as anything in the Audiophile world. Am i mistaken or are there more things than mere looks to look ( pardon the pun ;) ) for when someone is buying a TT?

So far I think I have scored with the SP-10 MKii. Impressive beast, must tell you ... I am thinking about a plinth that makes sense objectively say a large heavy chunk of metal damped by some elastic material to make is as dead and as capable of dissipating energy as possible then prop the whole contraption (plinth plus SP-10) on a Vibraplane place them far from the subs and speakers and be done for several years ... I suspect that there more than my simplified and reductionist view of the TT world?

Waiting for the experts to chime
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,308
1,425
1,820
Manila, Philippines
Silent, silent, silent and precise speed, speed, speed :)
 

theophile

Well-Known Member
I was listening tonight to a recording that I have loved for over 35 years: Carlos Santana/ John McLaughlin - Love Devotion Surrender. This is a recording which has defied during all previous playings on various systems and varieties of turntables, cartridges, phono stages etc to 'decode' completely( or at least sufficiently to the degree that it did tonight).

What a great system will do is take the musically enigmatic and unlock it.

End of explanation.
 

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