The Model 301 is a classic and exceptionally rugged turntable, still prized by vintage gear lovers. The mechanism drops into its plinth, and it’s not unusual for enthusiasts to fabricate custom plinths; I recently saw one made from solid slate. This one’s made from African bubinga wood with a stainless steel plate on the bottom. According to Sauck, this sample is circa late 1950s, maybe early 1960s. It’s fitted with two tonearms: an SME 3012 arm with a Shure V15 Type III cartridge, and an Ortofon arm with Ortofon SPU E GM MC cartridge. “Typically you’ll use one arm for a moving-coil cartridge and the other for a moving-magnet cartridge,” Sauck said.
“This one has an oil bearing, not a grease bearing,” he continued. “Grease hardens and gets gummy, which makes it a bear to clean out, but some say grease is quieter. The people who have the grease like the oil, the ones who have the oil like the grease. Grease-bearing models sell for higher prices, but there’s no real performance difference.”
There are so many great products from the past that either perform better, look better, or do both better than their current counterparts. You don't even have to even make subjective comparisons to arrive to this conclusion, either. The attention to detail many of the engineers had was outstanding.
The importance is that both modern designers and consumers should make comparisons between past and present to decide both how to design (what to focus) and what to buy (between 2nd hand in good condition or new).
The audio oscilloscope on the Marantz 2150 Tuner was for observing and correcting multipath in the FM Signal. By rotating your antenna (you did have a yagi antenna on a rotator, didn't you?) you would see the multipath change on the display. If you were in a metropollitan area with many high buildings, sometimes the best signal was a reflection off of a building. The scope gave you a visual indication of the strength of the multipath (noise) and allowed you an weasy way to minimize it. Also available in that time period was the Technics SH-3433, a standalone scope that provided FM Multipath viewing as well as 4 channel audio viewing.
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There are so many great products from the past that either perform better, look better, or do both better than their current counterparts. You don't even have to even make subjective comparisons to arrive to this conclusion, either. The attention to detail many of the engineers had was outstanding.
The importance is that both modern designers and consumers should make comparisons between past and present to decide both how to design (what to focus) and what to buy (between 2nd hand in good condition or new).
The audio oscilloscope on the Marantz 2150 Tuner was for observing and correcting multipath in the FM Signal. By rotating your antenna (you did have a yagi antenna on a rotator, didn't you?) you would see the multipath change on the display. If you were in a metropollitan area with many high buildings, sometimes the best signal was a reflection off of a building. The scope gave you a visual indication of the strength of the multipath (noise) and allowed you an weasy way to minimize it. Also available in that time period was the Technics SH-3433, a standalone scope that provided FM Multipath viewing as well as 4 channel audio viewing.