I see you're still talking auto changers, not automatic turntables and bringing tractors into the discussion here brings a new style of levity to this forum.
I guess the difference escapes you.
And, yes, record playing devices were ALL crude in the 50's compared to todays offerings, even today's budget turntables and price-weighted for inflation.
People love and restore '57 Chevys and they are great cars, but to say they are the Technical equivalent of a newer car is folly. They enjoy them for what they are. A nice old car. Likewise, you can enjoy your 301's, but to say they are better than a newer, more technically advanced unit is sheer folly. They use idler wheels, fercheezussake.
Heck, some people freeze-dry their beloved pets and display them when their time on this earth is up, too.
Actually back then the engineers were able to make superb idler wheel turntables and tape decks for that matter.
Take a look at this
Loricraft site.
I can vouch for the fact that everything they say about those Garrard turntables is true.
The fact is those Garrard 301s and 401s are better, much better than the majority of today's turntables, certainly any costing less than $2000 less arm and cartridge.
One of the great things about this studio, is the ability to show fine vintage engineering in the best of lights. When I play one of those 301s people are amazed at the quality. Even if I use a 60s vintage Decca cartridge people are just blown away.
The same goes for tape. The Ferrograph, Brenell and Vortexion decks had excellent speed stability and they used idler wheel technology.
I made superb master recordings with this deck and it uses idler wheel drive. It is the top one with the brushed stainless deck fascia.
If I play a real time two track stereo tape from the fifties on that machine again people are shocked at how little things have actually improved from a sonic point of view.
I have to say that decline in basic engineering standards has more than a little to do with our current economic mess.
I just read an article about the fact that our trains are much slower than 50 to 70 years ago.
When I visited San Francisco, I was impressed by the fact that the cable car system developed in 1875 came in ahead of schedule and below budget.
I looked at those overloaded cars on steep slopes, and was amazed at their safety record. If the problem had been given to a modern engineers, they would most likely said it was not possible. If they had attempted it, I feel certain they would have got themselves on CNN Breaking News and probably be the subject of a congressional inquiry.
When I went around the cable station, I was overwhelmed by the attention paid to safety and how elegant fail safe mechanisms had been built into the design. The gear case pulling the cars up those steep hills, had the inscription, "Philadelphia Gear Company" 1903. Now I ask you what of modern manufacture will be working day after day and hour after hour over a 100 years later?
On the day I left the lead article in the Newspaper was about a light rail line of about 27 miles, that was late, way over budget and kept breaking down. Now an electric railway, is a very simple engineering task.
And another thing, our forebears could bury these railway lines underground where they don't interfere with traffic and create noise. Now apparently we can't.
The fact is there is a huge amount of modern technology that is just plain awful and worse than what went before. I see examples again and again.
I can assure you that a Garrard 301 or 401 is a fine turntable, and no allowances need to be made for age. People paying large sums for them on eBay, and yes paying more than the sums generally talked about on these forums for turntables, are getting value for money. They are buying pieces of superb precision engineering that performs its intended task, which is timeless.
By the way I have just checked my 1968 Hi-Fi Year Book, and a Garrard 401 cost 25 pounds, five shillings and ten pence. An SME 3009 series two improved would have cost you 17 pounds, 17 shillings and six pence. An Ortofon SPU-E would have cost you 18 pounds and five shillings. A Decca ffss Mk 4 SHE would have cost 25 pounds 19 shillings.
