Lest we not forget that in 1986 turntable and vinyl sales were tanking in favor of CD. The OP can look at it as his table most likely won't sound as good as a much more expensive table, but on the good side, he has more money in his pocket, because he didn't have to spend as much. You have to face the facts quality is directly effected by increased cost, in most cases. You can't expect an inexpensive table to perform at the same levels as those much further up the line in most instances. Those compromises effect performance one way or another, it is simply a fact of physics. They all compromised many areas to get the price down to help keep within a specific budget. The OP's table was a lower budget table, and many of the manufactures made lower cost tables in their line ups. For some the extra cost is worth it, for others they might not care to pay the extra money for that level of performance, that is why manufactures made so many tables at different price points. My Technics SP10 MkII was technics TOLT, it has no automatic features, it didn't even include a tone arm.A good tonearm, cart, phono amp, mated to the SP 10 is going to sound better to most trained ears than the lower level Technics tables. Many of my upper level tables are mostly manual, or simply shut off at end of play. I don't think automatic features qualify tables level rating. On the contrary I think the above information clearly shows that Technics certainly didn't think so.Īlso note that Inflation adjustment calculators show that in today's dollars that 1986 $220 is worth $505. Judging by MSRP the Direct Drive line was the upper tier and in that line the QD33 was squarely in the middle, so I would find it difficult to say that this table is 'low -end'. So it could be argued that, at the time, Technics had two broad lines for their turntables, those being Belt Drive and Direct Drive (one could argue that the latter was further split into DD Linear tracking or that the DD Linear trackers constitute a separate line, but for the purposes of this conversation that point is moot).

Keep in mind that the direct drive models were ALL more expensive than the belt drive models.

Out of the 8 models I could find being sold new in 1986, the first year the QD33 was available, it is squarely in the middle of the pack. This list may not be complete and I don't know if theses tables were available everywhere. Lets look at the other Technics direct drive tables by MSRP available in those years. In 1986 when that table came out it was (MSRP) $220.00.

Technics sl dd33 worth buying