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Surprised by Denon direct drive!

Well, I've just taken possession of a cheap one. The arm is sticking at the moment, but I am hoping it's something simple!
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They are superb decks. I remember a youthful visit to HiFi Stereo in Sale, Manchester, and asking the owner if he sold Linn or Naim. In my ignorance, I wouldn't even listen to the Japanese equipment he had, so brainwashed was I by the magazines. Now I have a Sony TTS8000 with an AT tonearm and AT cartridge, a Denon amplifier, a Technics DAC, and Yamaha NS1000 speakers: lost years but new discoveries.

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You might think the DD Denon sounds fine for a moment compared to the P8 until it sinks in the the band isn't playing together, the drummer is having a bad day, the fine details in the background are all muddled and the tune is missing.
 
karma67 said:
the downside to these japanese exotica is some people are shit scared to turn them on in case they go bang! :D
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There was a chap on another forum who sold his vintage and fully working DD and bought a modern belt drive deck, as he was scared that the DD might one day fail! :rolleyes:

Then again, my own Sony PS-X9 stopped working last year and went bang and produced flames from the PCB when being repaired! A year on I still close one eye and switch it on at arm's length, just in case...
 
sktn77a said:
No first hand experience with the P8 but I'd be surprised you could hear flutter on a decent belt drive turntable with a heavy platter. Back in the early days, I could detect "hunting" with DD turntables that just wasn't there with a decent belt drive. Modern DDs may have cured this (eg the 124DD?) but I suspect your problem was with the P8.
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Yes, I suspect so - I don't recall having this problem with my Nottingham Analogue Interspace back 12 years ago, or at least not to the same degree.
 
cupples said:
I'm just after selling my Rega P8 to pay for a new kitchen (the joys...) and the plan was to pull out an old Denon DP2500 which I picked up a few months ago for £150, along with a rewired R200 tonearm, and stick the Audio Technica ART9 on it from the P8 to tide me over.
Well. I was not prepared for the tight bass, rhythmic drive and pitch perfection! This setup absolutely kills the P8 for speed stability! I've just accepted a little bit of instability with sustained piano notes, choral works and sustained chords on belt drives that I've had in the past as being part of the joys of vinyl, and maybe I'm just very sensitive to these things due to a musical background, but I was impressed! Inner grooves on Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years are rock solid, and long sustained chords on Solti's recording of Holst's Planet Suite are very nearly perfect!
Direct drive, where have you been all my life??
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Don't be too surprised. A couple of years ago a mate picked up a Sony DD deck for about £30, it looked a good deal like a Technics 1200. It sounded great. Well executed Japanese DD decks sound fantastic. My main criticism of them is that they look as if they are made of grey plastic (they are) and have no right to sound as good as they do.
 
awkwardbydesign said:
Well, I've just taken possession of a cheap one. The arm is sticking at the moment, but I am hoping it's something simple!
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It was simple. The horizontal arm bearings were dry and slightly corroded, so I cleaned and oiled them and now it doesn't stick. It'll do, the arm has a silly "damping compound" in it that makes it non rigid anyway.
 
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