Luxman

Rumor has it that Micro Seiki manufactured these belt drive vacuum tables for Luxman in the '80s. This was before Alpine (think car audio) bought the company. I have two PD-300s, and absolutely love them! Dead quiet and extremely dynamic. Stable speed like an expensive watch. The suction is a bit overpowering when using the optional VS 300 pump unit, the table normally comes with a hand lever and a built in bladder(!) for the suction. This holds for about ten minutes, the record will not stay down for an entire record side. With the optional pump you will be lucky to take the record off five minutes after its done playing! These are extremely heavy and overbuilt, as is typical of high end Japanese tables of the time.

  Also shown is a PD-121, a more typical direct drive table from roughly the same period. The majority of the Lux tables were direct drive. Also very well made and heavy. Beautiful low profile cosmetics with real rosewood bases.