Danny Tse

New Denon turntable at Crutchfield

I was looking for a single-disc CD player over at Crutchfield when I came across this new Denon turntable.....



While Denon has a long tradition with turntables and cartridges, it's great to see a mainstream manufacturer to continue support for vinyl playback equipment.

Denon DP-500MX

John Watson

Very nice, says its direct drive; does that mean belt free?

Too bad nice appearance isn't a concern for the other Denon sharp-edged black boxes I've been looking at...

Philip Hamm

Yes, direct drive = no belts. I've got a Denon direct drive turntable that I paid about $300 for maybe 10 years ago. It still runs but you can hear the motor. I'd love to buy that one to replace mine.

Philip Hamm
Moderator Emeritus

John Watson

It's very pricey, and the cartridge is extra!

I have a circa 1983 Technics turntable with direct drive, linear tracking cartridge, and a decent degree of auto - shut-off, repeat-play. It has a neat small profile.

I'm sure a contemporary version of that would sell well (for those who want a turntable, and aren't fanatics ), but it seems our society can't remember how to do such things.

Lee Distad

Turntables still sell briskly, oddly enough. We stock four models, from $100 to $800, and at Christmas time, sold out of all of them.

Another dealer in town carries ClearAudio from Germany:

http://www.clearaudio.de/res1/en/pro...reference.html

List price on those goes up to about $20K...

Charles Gurganus

I heard the theme from 2001 a Space Odyassy playing while looking at those turntables....

Charles