Point noted re iron lower platter. Alas, the chance of finding one without having to buy an entire TD124 must be incredibly low.
They definitely crop up, though the price does seem to be increasing as more realise they sound better than the alloy, but don’t want to spend LOLprice on a Swissonor, Schopper or whatever. Just keep your eye out, one will find you as there are some who need the alloy (e.g. want to run a Decca), or have just bought one of the aforementioned boutique platters.
I’ve had mine since before Brexit when importing stuff wasn’t a total ball-ache. It came from France and I think cost me about £120 landed. It is a beautiful thing.
I will certainly keep an eye out. Especially if the runout on my platter is visible - I too am extremely fussy on that and have swapped many turntables over it. I am in love with the way I can look at my Garrard 401 platter and can’t even tell if it’s moving, it’s engineering joyousness.
I’ve gone from being totally triggered by the non-flatness of my original top platter, to a Schopper one which was much better, but still not 100%, to the Retrotone which I honestly can’t see moving at all. It’s gone from the worst turntable for run-out I’ve owned to maybe the best, i.e. up there with a P9, Xerxes, Spacedeck etc. It is a really good product.
Annoyingly I don’t think Retrotone sell via eBay anymore. I knew I wanted one, but waited until one of eBay’s discount codes came up, I think I got 15% off, which on something that expensive makes a difference! May even have been 20%. I know at the time the discount more than paid for the cork under mat thing, and also the top mat adapter so you can use any mat, which I’m sure I’ll never use (I love the look of the Thorens and the dinked 45 adapter), but thought I’d land it regardless.
