Ah yes, the record store guy, who usually knows a lot more about records than record players!

With the greatest respect to record store guys, this is merely an observation based on experience. Several of my customers are record store guys, one owns a large record store here in Perth. Nice people, good taste, interested in record players and vinyl, but very rarely experienced with serious equipment to be able to offer opinions like this, and the ones I know would – or should – declare that.

This is true of most of what you’ll read and hear on most topics. What you need is to speak to someone who perhaps owns an end-game example of each type of turntable and then ask the right questions. Now, I wonder who does, and who’s listened to hundreds of such machines..?!

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!