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Iconic Turntables

Daniel Gibson

Daniel Gibson

Post Rocker
Following a whiskey fuelled eBay session last night, what’s the most iconic turntable ever made?
I have a lovely Michell Transcriptor which must be up there, but then the SL1210 has done so much in creating scenes and culture it must be tops?
Is there a deck that’s done more than the 1210?
 
I suspect the indisputable winner is the Technics SL1200 MkII. Ask most people to picture a turntable and that is what would come to into their mind. A global icon like a VW Beatle, iPhone, Swiss Army Knife or whatever.

The SL1200 would certainly make my list, but I’d have a far longer timeline also including the Garrard 301, Thorens TD-124, EMT 930, AR-XA, one of the big Empire decks, Transcriptors Reference, Linn LP12, Rega Planar 3, Micro Seiki DDX1000, the Gale Turntable, Technics SL10, Trio L07D, and likely finishing up with the Michell Gyrodeck. There are lots of other great decks out there, but I struggle to thing of anything else as iconic or historically significant.
 
The problem with this topic is that all things are all different to all men. I have spent nearly 60 years in Swindon which where Garrard made their turntables. They made dozens of the things but the two contenders for this discussion would be the 301 and 401.

If you ever spoke to any ex employee, most of whom are now long gone, they would to a man nominate the 401 as by far the better model. It was better constructed, had more demanding testing and was the all round better model. That rubbed off on me and I bought a 401 in the 1980s.

However in Hifi circles the 301 dominates and demand is such that the thing is now a rock sure investment. The old boys of Garrard would have regarded this as madness.

I only know of one surviving ex employee (retired purchasing manager) and he just cannot understand why an enthusiast could even think that a 301 is better than a 401.

Perception is reality but it is not a clear thing.
 
I'd rate Mark Dohmann's Continuum Caliburn as one of the most iconic tt's of all time (within the audiophile community atleast). The Caliburn has been Michael Fremer's long-term reference tt.
 
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Got to be the AR-XA and the Technics SL1210. They're polar opposites, but those two and many others inbetween make sense to me

I can understand the love for older idler drives, but some of the more recent megabuck exotica is just batshit crazy imho.
 
One more…

BGram4000Hi01.jpg


Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000, Jacob Jensen, 1972
 
Darren L said:
I'd nominate the Technics, LP12 and Gyrodec.
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I think this is best answer here. Iconic means the image that someone conjures up when they think of a turntable. This is not just including audiophiles like us, but the more general population too. Across the spectrum I think those three would fit the bill. The general population who are not so into turntables and hi-fi would picture a Technics, those with some interest in hi-fi an LP12 and those us with true taste a Gyrodec :D

Out of the three I think only the Gyrodec is a true classic in terms of industrial design though.
 
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