Not really Gino, the PE and Dual decks (which eventually melded together) were stunningly well engineered, gradually putting the auto Garrards to shame as time went on. The Dual 1019 from the mid sixties was and still is an amazingly good piece of machinery, gently changing records yet delivering a first class subjective performance still with a suitable midrange cartridge without a fussy stylus type.
The PE's were similarly constructed and significantly over-engineered. The mechs underneath were a work of art, hideously complicated looking, yet reliable I understand. As I said above, after the Lab 80, Garrard went into a decline, the sloppy tolerances of the Autoslim derivatives being carried over into the gorgeous looking but scrappy SL72/75/95/TLX3 models. The AP 76 I had was plagued with the classic (for Garrards) trip pawl problems, yet a pretty well mechanically identical SL95B "Module" I owned later was perfect in this respect (I should have kept this one as the platter barely rocked and the arm was fine).
For proper HiFi grade autochangers which make superbly good single players as well, you can't beat the early to mid 70's Duals. Anything from the 1216 upwards (I don't know the ones under this) is a goodie and I'll never sell my 701, which sounds so good with cartridges it was never designed for... Dual later went the Garrard way and styling took over from the basic engineering for a while. the 505 series looks like a Dual, but the pressed top plate was thinner and the tonearms more resonant in the headshell/headpieces they used. A 505-3 cannot sound better than it does with an Ortofon OM20, anything better being lost, whereas the 701 changes a lot of its character with the cartridge and mat used with it.
By the way Barry, when my Koetsu Black was working on both channels, it sounded incredible in the 701. I wouldn't trust it in the AT6 though
Tear down these walls; Cut the ties that held me
Crying out at the top of my voice; Tell me now if you can hear me