Design looks strange, to say the least.
But those iron cast based analog record players just simply will sound boring and dead. The art in analog record players is to make a system sing, and for that purpose, cast iron is surely not the right material. It adds a lot of mass, but having the disadvantage not being able to resonate in a controlled way.
Some people, however, like those dead sounding machines, they are quite some often fabricated by the high end people.
For some around here I get the impression things rapidly went downhill the moment we started walking upright.
The idiotic use of such a heavy metal design is for visuals and a mental message that it's better than others by being so impressive.
Like an overly stylish sports car with a huge engine.
That's all.
Marketing.... got to love it.
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It depends on some things. In fact, I auditioned silver wire, that sounded bright.
But otherwise, I heard silver litz wire, insulated with teflon wraps (Shindo) and this didn't sound bright at all. But I've never had the nerve to spend thousands on IC or speaker cables. Instead I prefer to invest that money in the gear itself. Much better ROI (return on investment) than tweaking gear with cables.
P.S. Me too, sucker for old Mercs.
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I'd much prefer, if I had to gaze at it, my pristine Dual 1215.
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Yes.....
I currently own the 1215 (as pictured), but previously owned a brand new 1229 and also had a 1219 given to me, both in the 1970's.
And my neighbor owns the beautiful 701, totally restored by me, as well as an old but pristine 1019, also overhauled by me.
They are enduring, yet remarkable pieces of German engineering, even today.
Me, age 27, in front of my Dual 1229, in 1980.
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Great! Gives me a thrill, thinking of those times. My father had an ELAC and my first stereo system was Hitachi.
I serviced and sold an Elac / Realistic Miracord 46 on craigs list about 2 years back.
Nice old beast, however Dual always was my favorite.
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The nice thing about those Duals, when playing a record, there is nothing connecting the tonearms to the mechanism, it's allowed to pivot freely with its own high precision bearings.
And the motor shaft and bearings are honed/polished to a micro-finish for smooth operation.
Dual back then went to great, extreme lengths to produce a fine piece of machinery.
Almost like a finely crafted piece of jewelry.
Nice thing about the ELAC is, it still works after 43 years (bought in 1978). Its a fully automatic player, but at the end of a record its better now to help by manually lifting the tonearm. MM system still plays like day one. Those things were robust, even if they were consumer gear only. It had received no service at all.
The ELAC player, with its natural restrictions, can play music that sounds like real music, never sterile, always with character.
I remember some years ago Michael Fremer did an online review on his channel of a Rolling Stones mono reissue LP compared to the original. And then he compared his super-hyper- youhaventseenitever- record player with the 30K$ tonearm to a normal record player with an SME 3012 I think. I did comment on his video that not only I found the original to sound better but would prefer the ordinary player over his million dollar player because that one sounded sterile and therefore unnaturally. One week later I searched for a reply. The comment was deleted. LOL.
The ELAC player, with its natural restrictions, can play music that sounds like real music, never sterile, always with character.
I remember some years ago Michael Fremer did an online review on his channel of a Rolling Stones mono reissue LP compared to the original. And then he compared his super-hyper- youhaventseenitever- record player with the 30K$ tonearm to a normal record player with an SME 3012 I think. I did comment on his video that not only I found the original to sound better but would prefer the ordinary player over his million dollar player because that one sounded sterile and therefore unnaturally. One week later I searched for a reply. The comment was deleted. LOL.
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Indeed, those well-known reviewers and high-end authorities do not want you to blemish or hear your side of honest and truthful comments, it goes against their reputations like throwing dirt on a gourmet dessert, or spitting in their fine wine.
I've had that happen on occasions, where I'd be scolded or reprimanded for my own opinion on something.
This sort of thing is in line with censorship of course, protecting both the reviewer, and the manufacturer's reputation, who, as the manufacturer, is paying that reviewer to endorse and praise their product in order to promote healthy sales.
And the sad thing is, people become brainwashed due to this manipulation, insisting that their belief or opinion of something is the right one, just because the reviewer says so.
We see this pretty much everywhere these days.