That sort of thing was what they ended up going with although I think the whole 'They stole the design' thing is a bit sketchy.
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Hamish Roberson had no manufacturing base for his design of the Ariston RD11 turntable, so he subcontracted manufacture to Castle Precision, a company owned by Ivor Tiefenbrun's father. Ivor Tiefenbrun saw the design and thought he could improve on it. A legal battle over patents followed but Roberson died before the situation could be resolved.
Certainly the original belt drive design was made, and promoted by Edgar Villchur of Acoustic Research.
And the rest is history, and its good history, long live the LP12. Bob
Price was always a good guide in this respect. You did get what you paid for. Technics, Sony and Denon all had some quality decks, but they came at a cost. I 'inherited' a cheapy cheap Sansui deck a couple of years ago, it was dreadful. Be ok for headphone listening I suppose.
I bought a cheapo Sony direct drive, the ones with the hollow plastic plinth. It was okay, provided you didn't drum on it, not really far off an SL1200 as you'd worry that much. I was going to tinker with it by adding blu tak to the inside of the plinth and whatever else came to mind, but then someone needed a deck so I gave it away.
Also had a Sanyo DD in faux rosewood plinth that came as part of a job lot. Mint, not a mark on it, or the lid, looked brand new. That was also pretty decent, good enough for anyone not taking vinyl very seriously. Gave that to the bloke who fitted my FM ariel. Probably sell for £200 on ebay now.
This was the Sanyo - TP1012
https://i.ibb.co/LdrrM4Zz/s-l1600.jpg
well they didn't owe me much, twenty quid each or so. This is 25 years ago I'm talking. No-one wanted turntables.
I'd take that Sanyo over a Rega 3. But not over an SL1200 or the old LP12 Valhalla. Or a Systemdek IIX which is what I ended up with for a long time.
I sometimes wish I'd held onto my old Valhalla Linn with its Grace G707 and MP11 Boron, but I got a decent deal part ex-ing against the Monarch. But then what would I do with it? Just be cluttering up the place. I've seen tee shirts that say "It's not hoarding if it's vinyl", but that's meaning records, not record players.