Yamaha GT 2000 Turntable

Compared to most of the other top of the line vintage Japanese direct-drive turntables, the GT2000 is readily available in Tokyo, every time I have been there and touring the audio salons.  (Our son lives in Tokyo, so I am there once every couple of years, going again in October.) Whereas, for example, I have never seen (in person) a Pioneer Exclusive P3 or even a Technics SP10 Mk3 for sale in a store over there.  This may only be a reflection of the possibility that the GT2000 was a bit less expensive than the others, and therefore more units may have been sold. Hifido has the GT2000 very often on-line, too.  For reasons unknown to me, it seems to have become more sought after in recent years, which has led to a rise in prices on the used market.  Raul, if you like it so much, can you enlighten me on the features that make it so desirable vs the many other contenders? Thanks. I do know it has a nice over-sized platter.

I went to the URL provided by Theophile.  The guys on Audiokarma seem to have been in general agreement that owning one of these vintage beasts is risky, in terms of their non-repairability if something breaks.  I have to say that I disagree with this point of view.  First of all, the smart thing to do is to replace all the electrolytic capacitors immediately upon purchase, if this has not been done already. Most of the failures result directly or indirectly from leaky electrolytics.  And replacing the lytics is cheap insurance.  After that, all the transistors used in "those days" are either still available or there is a modern superior substitute.   Replacing a bad IC can be a problem, in theory, but I have been able to find supposedly NLA ICs for both my Denon DP80 and my Victor TT101 (which actually did not need a new IC), by searching on-line, and they were very cheap. In addition, the ultra-rare chip for a Technics SP10 has been re-created using discrete SMD parts by a NYC-based engineer, and his pseudo-IC works better than the original.  This same gentleman was also able to troubleshoot my TT101. So, if you want a GT2000, don't hesitate to purchase one for fear of a problem of this sort.  Of course, you should do your homework on the provenance of the one you finally do select to purchase.

Dear @lewm : I think you dit not read yet the whole link I posted to the OP, please read it. There you can find out a precise answer to your question where you can see that in some specs, like w&f, beats not only every single Technics but even the P3 by Pionner.

Additional to that it comes with very good tonearm. Here you can see it:

http://www.hifido.co.jp/KW/G/P0/A10/E/0-10/S0/C12-64851-46165-00/

Can any one ask for a better TT that this Yamaha?, now just imagine this GT 2000 with today up grades not only at electronic level ( as you mentioned. ) but on: plinth, platform and the like.

Years ago, in other thread, I posted that this and the DP-100 by Denon were the TTs TO GO .  Anyway, the Yamaha is other example of the greatness of vintage japanese DD TTs.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Raul, I generally would pay no attention to specifications published by a manufacturer, although I would assume that actual units perform "close enough" to the published specs.  But I would never use such information to make a fine distinction between the GT2000 and another great turntable, like the P3.  In addition, you say the GT2000 has a "very good" tonearm. It probably does, but what does that term mean, exactly? We do know that the tonearm on the P3 was made by M-S for Pioneer, and it is widely regarded as a very good tonearm, too.  I've seen the P3 tonearm for sale separately for as much as $7,000 (which is kind of ridiculous, I admit, since you can buy a complete P3 for less money). So, I would ask for some hard facts, like what is the platter mass, what kind of motor does it use and how much torque does it generate when needed?  How is the plinth made and with what materials that we might think are good for dampening? Etc.  Having said all that, I did do some reading on Vintage Knob, and I saw that the GT2000X (the upscale version of the GT2000) uses a coreless motor.  This is a big plus in my own frame of reference.  The X version also has a very massive bearing assembly and an 18kg platter(!), which is spectacular for direct-drive, the most massive platter I know about among vintage DD turntables.  In fact, now I want a GT2000X. I will look for one in Tokyo. I'm convinced.