Fight! Fight! Fight!
I have an old pioneer double-cassette deck and a single TEAC one, but sadly, neither of them work properly. Particularly miffed about the TEAC one, as it is part of a nice hi-fi set. I tried to take them to a repair shop about a decade ago, but they pretty much laughed and said it wasn't worth their time to even take the screws out of it, because they aren't worth fixing, parts are hard to find, the amount of time it would take to troubleshoot and dismantle the pretty chaotic mechanisms. I still have them though, as I couldn't bear to get shut.
I regards to the decks, everyone will tend to favour and defend the ones they use and like. In terms of specification, cold, hard, manufacturing spec, I am willing to believe that the new Technics are of a much more precise build than the old technics and that, personally, I would find it hard to believe that the Stantons are equal in build quality and specification. We already know the wow and flutter is a factor of 10 out of whack.
The new Stantons have a completely redesigned motor, which is now cordless and has some kind of tracking feature derived from Blueray technology. Machining, material engineering, composites, will have also greatly improved over the last 40 years since the originals were formulated and produced in the same way until they shut the factory down.
I would therefore say that the Technics development in these fields are the reason why Technics feel they can charge the ridiculous figures for their new decks, as the start-up and technology study needs to be paid for to recoup their investment in starting up to sell record players again.
Yet, with all that being said, does anybody really need blueray technology driven coreless motors and specialist new rubber materials that resist deformation or whatever? If another deck manages the same torque, the same start up time, the same weight and vibration damping, the same wow and flutter, to the exact same micron of measurement, then why buy the technics?
The PLX1000 or the Reloop could and would be just as good to mix on. The lack of more complex technology may mean there is less to go wrong. Yet the way the new technics are designed and manufactured, may mean they are still chugging away 40 years from now, whilst the PLX's, Stanton's and Reloops are in landfill.
But who knows - and should anybody over 40 really care all that much?! I am already in my 40's. I have no need for a turntable that will last till I'm 80 years old, childless and all alone in an old folks home being abused by my carers whilst I wait to die. Any offspring I may even gain will probably chuck all my collection away in a skip when they ship me off to pasture because I can't remember my own name, never mind spin some discs!
On that basis, I won't be buying the 1200G's or whatever worth about £1300 for ONE deck! The MK7's at £800 each are more than enough. So why not stick with a Reloop, PLX or Stanton, where the main difference is likely to be negligible and where the skill of the DJ to tinker with the mix ought to counter any flaws in the product - and besides, you can have the best decks on the planet but only be able to mix like an iguana on steroids, or have the musical inspiration of a whelk.
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