Sony PS-X9

@lewm 
No worries.  No offense taken. On that note (direct drive) there are nice examples readily available,  I've considered.   My experience is limited and thus defer to the experience of you fine members. 

Jose

jg2077
The Verdier seams like a cool table. Thinking of purchasing as to hear/play with it.

jg2077

All anyone that is a first time user with La Platine can do, is "play with it" , to try to figure it out. It is a unique way to play your records. It is a String Drive design and all components were made to work best with string/thread.
For business reasons a belt pulley was "added" to the parts list - for Sales and to appease audiophiles. Running La Platine with belts is like riding a bike with training wheels.
   
Now many try and figure it out, but fall prey to the audiophile itch to modify it. Since all its body parts are easily accessible and viewable - it is easy to fall to this temptation. I can understand this. A modified La Platine is no longer La Platine.

For the Collector - I guess you can park it on a shelf and admire the platter ?  
The most collectable La Platine is the Granito version - the most expensive to make, and a limited run was done for audiophile hungry Japanese.

I had many conversations with Mr. Verdier when he was alive. RIP
@OP Someone alerted me to your post or I would never have seen it. Any questions feel free to pm me or ask me on my virtual system. Just Click on Wile E Coyote. 
Cheers

@ct0517 
thank you, PM sent.

I don't care to modify, much less park it.  Gentlemen, I have had a modest technics 1200 for 30 years...just looking for a cool (beauty is in the eye of the beholder), good sounding TT with some collectability value.


I appreciate all the patience/help given.
Regards,
Jose


regards

The La Platine has one design flaw (at least).  The unit is top heavy and rests on spongy feet.  Since the platter is well balanced, this isn't an awful problem, but platter inertia coupled with the biasing weight of the tonearm and its built on mount can cause the whole shebang to tilt.  Some owners modified theirs with more solid footers.  The Granito version has a heavier base, which would shift the center of gravity down lower toward the mounting surface. I personally don't like the long thread drive and the concept of mounting the motor separately on a distant pedestal of its own.  This could cause all sorts of havoc with the drive system.

I have owned many tables Including a PS-X60 & PS-X70, Kenwood L07-D. I’m refurbing a Technics SL-1310 Mk2 right now. I’ve never heard the PS-X9, so it may not be fair of me to say. With the much better power supply and heavier platter and Isolation throughout, I would assume that it is more refined that the very nice PS-X70.
In every case, on my old direct drive tables and I’ve had several, I always tend to dampen them throughout, make sure all caps are replaced in the power supply and tend to dampen when I can around the supply to help isolate vibration/resonance from the rest of the table, in one case, I put heat shrink dampening on the tonearm with good results.

I’ve never spend more than maybe 5 or 600 dollars on the machine before my work.
Of course, I could be totally wrong because I haven’t sat in front of a PS-X9, but my instincts are that you could snag several top of the line consumer tables of that era and with some work, have a fine piece of gear for peanuts.
I suspect that the PS-X70 had the same family flavor and with some work, it is really a nice sounding table.
Right now there are a couple of Sansui SR-929 floating around, I’ve not played with it, but it looks like it would also perform admirably.
Bottom line, what I am saying is that you can most likely grab 4 or 5 of the old legends of audio and end up with a VERY satisfying table and if careful in your purchase, you could easily move the others that you don’t keep without any loss. 
Check out the beautiful Sansui SR-929 on ebay for $1200 obo.