With the greatest respect to record store guys, they usually know more about records than record players.

Several of my customers are record store guys; one owns a large record store here in Perth. Good people, good taste, interested in record players and vinyl, which is great, but rarely do they have the experience with serious equipment to offer any useful opinions on topics like this. Worse still, they often retail new equipment, creating a conflict of interest that should, of course, be declared, but rarely is.

Advice of any substantive value can only come from those who’ve owned or own end-game examples of each type of turntable, have heard hundreds, if not thousands, of turntables, and are deeply experienced with the nuances of the topic. That’s why we offer our advisory service, and why I warn people to be cautious about forums and the opinions of random people.

There are excellent belt-drive and direct-drive turntables. It’s not the drive method alone or even mostly that determines system performance. Unfortunately, most people aren’t interested in the technical details, nor have they been exposed to the range of equipment necessary to form a valid opinion on this important point.

How many record store guys do you think have listened to an SL-1000, PD-350 or L-07D, for example, let alone owned several of these grail machines? Simply put, most people will never hear an end-game turntable, and this lack of experience and knowledge lies at the heart of all misinformation, on this topic and others.

As we always say at Liquid Audio: knowledge is power. Want the truth? Speak to someone who knows what it is!