Most Expensive Turntable in the World
Written by: tom Filed Under: Art, Electronics, Music, World on January 13th, 2006The turntable started out as a device used to play music by rotating a phonograph record on a a circular horizontal platform, but it has evolved into a music instrument itself and some models now are just as much as the costliest instrument. The record player was the most popular device for playing sound from the 1870s through the 1980s, but in the modern work-a-day world of iTunes and Sattelite radio, the record player is often overlooked. DJs and Turntablism brought new life and new expensive turntables to the consumer and keeps the record player adapting.
Vinyl is alive and kicking because the most passionate and wealthy audiophiles know that CD’s or mp3’s sound can‘t touch anything on these—the most expensive turntables.
Continuum Caliburn – up to $112,000
Vinyl isn’t dead, and The Continuum Caliburn turntable proves this by aiming for audio perfection. The price for this expensive turntable starts at $90,000 and goes up to $112,000, depending on finishes and includes some amazing technology. The tonearm alone sells for $12,000. The turntable uses a magnetically levitated magnesium platter suspended in a vacuum to assure there are no vibrations.
Clearaudio Statement – $125,000
This 770-pound hunk of wood and aluminum features a magnetically-driven sub-platter that completely eliminates contact with the main platter and real time speed control. A 176 lb pendulum ensures that the platters are always level and a high speed microprocessor-controlled motor drive unit, similar to that used in the Mars rover, keeps the records turning.
Basis Work of Art – $150,000
This Work of Art uses a “mass-spring-dampener” suspension system to completely isolate the turntable from the listening environment while an AC synchronous instrument motor provides the speed-stability necessary to put the most ardent audiophiles at ease. The Work of Art’s support structure is so rigid that audible resonance is eliminated.
Goldmund Reference II – $300,000
The successor to the 25-year-old Goldmund Reference is a high-precision turntable with level calibration to less than 1/100th of a millimeter and its stylus, pivot and counterweight “perfectly aligned for optimal dynamic balance.” Three Teflon tubes prevent vibration of the wires as they carry signal from the turntable. The turntable also features a digital processor that provides RIAA correction which, I’m guessing, has nothing to do with those people who sue people for downloading MP3 files.
The world’s most expensive turntable is limited to a mere twenty-five units with only five being made per year.
[Thanks to D]
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I will soon be a world renowned dj. and i will buy this peace of beautiful machinery
Well dream on..hopefully you won’t scratch so much otherwise you’ll find a years hard-owned salary spend on just the needle-replacement.
i think i just soiled meself. i had no idea such beauty existed
Save your money, the worlds best is the JC Verdier turntable,hands down. Buy one, add a SME 3012 and take a good vacation with the rest of the money.I’m sure you will have lots of money left over when you get back..
Enjoy the music.
The most expensive turntable requires the ears of a dog. Most 45 years old people can hardly hear more than 10 – 12 thousand HZ. Hence such an investment is more like investing on Gold and Diamonds rather than pretending you can hear the most silent whispers of such a brilliant piece of art. On the other hand a wealthy person is more than welcome to pay for his vanity the smart inventor of this equipment and tell his friends the story of how much he spent to buy the most expensive turntable in the world
John
There’s another one even more expensive, the Clearaudio Statement Turntable.
http://www.needledoctor.com/Clearaudio-Statement-Turntable?sc=2&category=347
Clearaudio Statement: $125,000
Basis Audio ‘Work of Art’: $150,000
The granddaddy of them all:
Goldmund Reference II: $300,000
[...] On the other hand, if there’s you are convinced there’s no substitute for the real thing, you can’t do better than the Goldmund Reference II, perhaps the most precise record player in the world. Unfortunately, on 25 are made each year. Fortunately, you won’t care, because they cost $300,000 each. [...]
Anyone who understands the Ray Kilmanas paper in the AES Journal would recognize the gross defect in this design. The incorrect geometry of the arm can generate up to 4% modulation distortion. A turntable of this price should not have such a defect. Would you buy a tape recorder with 4% flutter?
hmmmm….where did i stash my old Dansette?
at least i can take it for a walk
HAHAHA!!
People can be such self deluded fools!
Back in the day, I used to work at Cinram – one of the largest record pressing plants in in the world – and you wouldn’t believe what a hack job making records was. Superior product, my a55! From nodule infested nickel stampers, cheap regrind in the vinyl, to QC’ing done by third world labor that barely spoke english, anyone who thinks vinyl sounds better than digital is a total sucker…the kind that buys these turntables…and also convinces themselves that Monster cables really do sound better and are worth the price.
Some egregiously ignorant morons out there…
Enrico,
No one argues the musical potential of the Verdier. But for people well jaded into Esoteric/EMM/dCS that kind of digetal stuff it’s peanuts.