solidity, stability, reliability, beauty, simplicity and elegance of design

isolation

This is a gorgeous turntable, simple and elegant, a heavyweight platter "floating" on three pods: no plinth, no cabinet, just the bare essentials. A friend asked me "Is that your spiritual gyroscope on your journey to Mars?" It's direct drive, an audiophile no-no, but its rumble figure is slightly better than my suspended chassis belt drive Linn LP 12. It's able to mount three tonearms at once, a pretty pointless attribute, though I have ocassionally had MM and MC cartridges mounted simultaneously. The great advantage of its arm-mount design is that it's rock solid and, even more important, height-adjustable, invaluable to users of arms such as the Rega, which has no VTA adjustment. My high end turntable journey led through most of the classic Thorens range, to a Linn/Valhalla/Ittok (arguably inferior to the Thorens TD126) but with a tremendous reputation and pride of ownership. But when I got the MicroSeiki, I retired the Linn to the garage: theoretically it's a better table, but I didn't hear any superiority, and preferred the Seiki's simplicity and solidity to the Linn's fiddly eccentricity. True, I never mounted the Ittok on the Seiki with the identical cartridge for a true head-to-head contest, but my satisfaction with the Seiki was so great I never felt the need for precisely fine comparison. I admit I'm swayed by glamour, and putting a record on the Seiki is a thrill every time (that 'spriritual gyroscope' thing), whereas the Linn is a hassle. The Seiki has two drawbacks. 1) Isolation. If I stamp on my suspended wooden floor, I hear thumps through the Quad 63's (on the other hand, the Linn also not only thumps but skips grooves — the Seiki is better in this department), and 2) the armboards are hard to obtain and if you buy them new cost $300. That's what I paid for the whole table! I am able to make my own armboards, customized for any arm, but if you don't have that ability, you might think twice. But if you can buy a DQX-1000, with a suitable armboard, at a good price (under $500) don't hesitate.

Similar Products Used:

Linn Sondek, Oracle, Thorens

It can play through earthquakes. Quartz lock makes wow history.

You need to REALLY know what you're doing when mounting the arm and cartridge.

It is a formidable steady turntable, rock solid and really heavy. As described below, it has 3 feet that swallow any vibrations. I never had problems with isolation, perhaps because my set is pretty heavy.
Anyway, I use an Alphason HR-100S tone arm and a Denon DL-304 cartridge. The result makes me very proud, I will never have to look for another turntable. I can spend the rest of my life trying to reach the bottom of the sound it delivers, and never get to it.

Similar Products Used:

Micro Seiki BL-77