I am guilty of falling in love with vintage tables and have 6 to prove the point - Micro-Seiki RX5000; Victor TT-101; SP10 Mk2; Lenco L75; Sony PS-X70; Micro-Seiki BL-51; oh and I have an old AR-XA waiting to be revived. Add to these a bunch of old tone-arms such as Lustre 801; Audiocraft 4400; Sony PUA-1600L and I come to the conclusion its a bit like buying old sports cars - performance OK, pride of ownership ...... priceless! BTW I am lusting after a Thorens TD-124, a Yamaha GT2000; Pioneer Exclusive P3; Sony PS-X9 etc. etc!
Now, with great reluctance the truth is:- that today, the best sounding rig is my Oracle Delphi V SE, Dynavector 507 II and Miyabi McBee. I love all my vintage stuff, and it all sounds great (my Yamaha CA2010 amp is sublime in my ski chalet) but let's be realistic we are not judging on quantitative measures alone but "perceived enjoyment" and it is really nice to connect with some of the vintage gear.
One phenomena we should consider is that the Linn Sondek LP 12 hijacked the reality of what sounded good - and I used to own one. The Linn had a less analytical presentation than the mainstream Japanese audio in the 70's and the press hyped to a point of evangelical proportions and DD became passe and belt drives were it all of a sudden. Interestingly, as a previous owner of an AR belt drive, followed by a Heybrook TT, the LP12 became the standard not by design, but by consistent implementation and good marketing. Then with Thorens also selling expensive belt drive tables, that sounded very nice, and the Japanese DD tables in consumer friendly lightweight plinths that sounded poor, we became aficionados of belt drives. Now 20 years later with better implementation of constrained mass plinths and so on, we get optimum performance of the older gear. - and it does not sound bad at all!
Reality is that there have been no substantial technology shifts in table design or , well engineered mechanics from 30 years ago are competitive with anything well engineered and designed today. For me, the vintage gear is competitive, but not necessarily better and visa-versa.
Folks like Teres have done an outstanding job of tweaking existing technology with better implementation (I have installed a Verus rim drive on my RX5000 and love it) but the technology has not changed significantly and therefore my conclusion is that vintage or modern, the performance will be defined by attention to detail, well executed design and tight manufacturing tolerances and there is no single platform that wins - and I can demo you DD, Idler, Belt and best implementation wins, not a specific technology platform.
Now, with great reluctance the truth is:- that today, the best sounding rig is my Oracle Delphi V SE, Dynavector 507 II and Miyabi McBee. I love all my vintage stuff, and it all sounds great (my Yamaha CA2010 amp is sublime in my ski chalet) but let's be realistic we are not judging on quantitative measures alone but "perceived enjoyment" and it is really nice to connect with some of the vintage gear.
One phenomena we should consider is that the Linn Sondek LP 12 hijacked the reality of what sounded good - and I used to own one. The Linn had a less analytical presentation than the mainstream Japanese audio in the 70's and the press hyped to a point of evangelical proportions and DD became passe and belt drives were it all of a sudden. Interestingly, as a previous owner of an AR belt drive, followed by a Heybrook TT, the LP12 became the standard not by design, but by consistent implementation and good marketing. Then with Thorens also selling expensive belt drive tables, that sounded very nice, and the Japanese DD tables in consumer friendly lightweight plinths that sounded poor, we became aficionados of belt drives. Now 20 years later with better implementation of constrained mass plinths and so on, we get optimum performance of the older gear. - and it does not sound bad at all!
Reality is that there have been no substantial technology shifts in table design or , well engineered mechanics from 30 years ago are competitive with anything well engineered and designed today. For me, the vintage gear is competitive, but not necessarily better and visa-versa.
Folks like Teres have done an outstanding job of tweaking existing technology with better implementation (I have installed a Verus rim drive on my RX5000 and love it) but the technology has not changed significantly and therefore my conclusion is that vintage or modern, the performance will be defined by attention to detail, well executed design and tight manufacturing tolerances and there is no single platform that wins - and I can demo you DD, Idler, Belt and best implementation wins, not a specific technology platform.