Reply to "Vintage Oasis Turntable and the Pantera"

The phono system is admittedly not as wild looking as the Oasis system. It consists of a Luxman direct drive turntable, its very heavy, built like a tank, older than my Pantera, never needed any repair. I got tired of European belt drive turntables, this direct drive unit has been with me ever since. This particular Japanese turntable was one of Luxman's earliest turntables, originally designed for a British SME tone arm, but I retro-fitted it with an Audio Quest PT9 tone arm (manufactured by Jelco of Japan) in the early 1980s. The phono cartridge is also Japanese, a Sumiko "Talisman model A" moving coil cartridge feeding signals to the preamp via a Carver Corporation moving coil transformer. The transformer is also of 1980s vintage, but made in the US. The "model A" Sumiko cartridge was chosen because it is equipped with an elliptical stylus which is less finicky about vertical tracking angle than other stylus designs. Total nerd stuff.

I would like to install a shelf above the night stand to display my 1983 vintage "flagship" Magnavox FD1000SL CD player, but so far Debbie has put her foot down. The little CD player is as heavy as a Cleveland cylinder head. The robust CD transport, designed in 1983, will play recordable CDs! This is the CD player purchased for executives at CBS Records early in 1983 as the CBS Corporation moved ahead into compact disc manufacturing and marketing. It was also the first CD player employed in the listening studios of CBS Laboratories ... and was the listening standard for high end CD producers for a couple of decades. Its kinda cool, another museum piece ... like the owner.