Please, let me add two of my favorites:
1) Belt drive turntables are superior to direct drive turntables.
Younger audiophiles can be excused as they have probably only heard mid line junk from Japanese mass market makers. Older audiophiles may have fallen under the spell of the Linn mistique (I too owned one for many moons). But anyone who has taken time to listen to a properly set-up Denon DP-6000, Technics SP-10 MK2, Goldmund, or similar high end direct drives will quickly realize that these tables are fully competitive, though with a different set of virtues, with the likes of Linn, VPI, SOTA, Rega, etc. I might add that the cost to produce these monsters, in 2003 dollars would be as staggering as the prices on current top line turntables.
2) Older gear is eclipsed by modern gear at comparable price points.
I discuss thirty year old turntables above. The two best tuners to ever issue forth from the hand of man are the Fisher FM-1000 and Marantz 10B. Thiry years later they still have not been surpassed. Even upper line analog tuners from Sansui, Kenwood, Yamaha and Pioneer are incredibly good and sell at very moderate prices. Many fourty year old tube amps, with a little upgrading, are also quite competitive. The Heath WM-4 and WM-5 come to mind and the 807 triode amps from Stancor are unbelieveable, even by current standards. Advertisers have brain washed us into thinking that everything old is just junk, but it just ain't so.
1) Belt drive turntables are superior to direct drive turntables.
Younger audiophiles can be excused as they have probably only heard mid line junk from Japanese mass market makers. Older audiophiles may have fallen under the spell of the Linn mistique (I too owned one for many moons). But anyone who has taken time to listen to a properly set-up Denon DP-6000, Technics SP-10 MK2, Goldmund, or similar high end direct drives will quickly realize that these tables are fully competitive, though with a different set of virtues, with the likes of Linn, VPI, SOTA, Rega, etc. I might add that the cost to produce these monsters, in 2003 dollars would be as staggering as the prices on current top line turntables.
2) Older gear is eclipsed by modern gear at comparable price points.
I discuss thirty year old turntables above. The two best tuners to ever issue forth from the hand of man are the Fisher FM-1000 and Marantz 10B. Thiry years later they still have not been surpassed. Even upper line analog tuners from Sansui, Kenwood, Yamaha and Pioneer are incredibly good and sell at very moderate prices. Many fourty year old tube amps, with a little upgrading, are also quite competitive. The Heath WM-4 and WM-5 come to mind and the 807 triode amps from Stancor are unbelieveable, even by current standards. Advertisers have brain washed us into thinking that everything old is just junk, but it just ain't so.