Other oddball idiosyncratic and one off tables

The Connoisseur BD2 belt drive table with a one piece 10" platter and typically British simple design,

The French ERA 444 with the leaf spring suspended tonearm,

The Fons CQ-30 "poor man's Linn" with archiving abilities- 16, 33, 45, and 78 speeds with pitch control for each!

Harman Kardan ST-7 linear tracking table, pretty!

Pack rat that I am, I still own most of these. Nostalgia?

Naw. They ain't worth poop. Might as well keep them.

AR Acoustic Research

Edgar Villchur could pretty much be credited for the high end belt drive suspended turntable as we know it today. Invented in the '60s, the AR-Xa was a groundbreaking step into the products that would spawn many competitors- the Linn, Ariston, Thorens, and  others.Famous for speakers at the time (think AR3's), this was probably the best selling turntable in its day. My Xa that I still have has a second motor to keep it from starting backwards!  The ES was reissued years later and had equal success due to it's sexy looks and reasonable price. Still extremely popular on the used market today.

Denon

  Nippon Colombia, or Japanese CBS- these were the broadcast standard of Japan for many years. The NHK is basically the Japanese BBC. Their moving coil cartridges still are highly regarded today. I have a 103S and a 103D. Had a DP-75 table and a DP-1100. Sold these for both JB and The Sound Cellar.  Excellent quality and about as good as a direct drive table can get. Only the truly esoteric Technics and Goldmunds bested them. Unique speed monitoring system that had a tape recorder head a few millimeters from the inside of the platter which was coated with a magnetic coating resembling recording tape. One can only wonder what would have happened had they channeled their efforts into belt drive.

B&O aka Bang and Olufsen aka Bang and Awfulsound

Running joke in the '80s. Not the average audiophile's bill of fare, at least in unmodified  form. Certainly some of the most beautiful and eclectic designs of their day. Their cartridges remain to this day some of my favorites. Their tables can only use their cartridges,but universal half inch mounts will allow their cartridges to be used on other tables, sort of a pre-cursor to the later day p-mounts. Contemporary Danish designs, several pieces were on permanent display in the Museum of Modern Art, NYC. Had two 4002s, still have one, not working (go figure). Impossible to get fixed, near impossible to get parts for, this company is just waaayyy too big! If I really hated my friend Joe I would post a phone number for him here and refer all your repairs to him.  Famous today for the telephones, TVs and furniture, basically a Danish design firm. Started with the 1200, evolved into the 1700s, 2400s,4000s, up to the budget  TX/RXs and finally the 8000/8002 with an eddy current (!) drive system. Equally versed in both linear tracking and radial arm designs, these never failed to wow the general public. I had a lot of fun selling these for both JB and The Sound Cellar,  banged on the base while they were playing, slammed the dustcover, and ripped the arm across the record! Almost gave a few people heart attacks, usually at loud volume. The unique MMC design of the cartridge (micro moving cross) had the stylus coming up and blipping over the top of the record groove as opposed to digging in- very unique suspension. Extremely low mass arms and cartridges, double knife edge tonearms like the SME. The cartridges could only be used with low mass arms like the Grace 707 and Infiniti Black Widows.  Still use a top of the line MMC-20CL cartridge in an SME arm. One of my favorites. 

Ariston

The RD-11 and RD-11S (Superior) were competition for the Linn Sondek, and never quite took off the same way. Also made in Scotland, the worksmanship and machining was first rate. Somehow never quite had the magic that the Linn did. The RD-11E was a cheaper table manufactured for them by a Japanese company- not really sure who, but they should not have called it an RD-11! A completely different table, nowhere near as good. Years later they added several other models to the line, RD-40 which somewhat mimicked the Oracle, RD-50, and their "Q-Deck", which had some commercial sucess in the budget turntable category.

Things I never did with my turntables

                                                        Never did the DJ "scratch" thing!

                                                         

                                                        

Thorens

No discussion about turntables would be complete without mentioning Thorens, a Swiss company that is probably one of the oldest still functioning companies today. I still have a TD-125ab kicking around, which was arguably their most famous. Often paired with SME 3009 tonearms, this was a classic combination that at the time rivaled the best.  Very heavy and extremely well made, these represent still one of the best values in the used market today. I have also pictured one of their most recent offerings that I never owned but would surely lust after!