JBE Series 3 Slate Deck DD turntable

[JazzBones]

Seasons greetings everyone I have always known about the existence of the JBE Slate deck but until reading Haden Boardman's 'Vintage Hi Hi' recolections on pages 110 - 114 in Hi Fi News January 2011 edition, I had not realised that it was a Direct drive turntable of Brit/Nipponese ingredients! Its seems that the JBE, especially in slate plinth format, was a very good Turntable , probably still is I would imagine. Unfortunately gurus, hacks and alot of ego buried it in the 1970/80s along with some other good TT (including the 1200/10s of the day, and we all know how good they are, don't we ).

Does anyone own or can shed a bit more info on the JBE as I would imagine that it must have a wow factor married to good performance. Do these fetch insane prices on todays open market place???

Have now reached ground level again after the village pub frolics, the turkey and tinsel of Xmas and a new year resolution to get the utmost out of my music repro system.

Jingle bells, red noses and a great 2011 to all

Ron, aka Jazz

[DSJR]

Merry christmas Ron. let me have your email address via PM and I'll send a scan of the 'Choice review.

To summarise, it has the Matsushita OEM motor which servo hunted if provoked and that just about sums it up as it's entire character was dominated by this. before we took Linn on in '77, a speciality of KJW1 was a JBE with Mayware Formula 4 tonearm and Sonus Blue cartridge. Very good at the time, but the LP12 blew it into touch IF the latter was properly set up - and few of them were in the early days outside of London...

[synsei]

There was a JBE on eBay around November time. It was a bit grubby but appeared structurally sound, IIRC it went for around 250 quid.

It piqued my interest because my grandad had one back in the '70's. I never heard it though as his listening room went into maximum security lock-down whenever anyone under four foot eight entered the house, particularly when accompanied by sugary treats...

[DSJR]

Slate plinth and despite the looks, records were quite well supported. Only the motor unit let it down - Matsushita kept it's best motors for its own top products

[hifi_dave]

JBE used to run comparative, unsighted demos against the Linn at various Hi-Fi shows. Twice I sat on these and along with other members of the audience consistently picked out the Linn as the better sounding deck, much to the consternation of the people from JBE.

Some time after, as dealers, we took in a couple of JBE's as p/x against other decks and these were used in our own comparative demos until the product faded from popularity.

[DSJR]

The LP12 may "only" be a springy belt-drive, but it's a very well sorted one where dynamic-wow is concerned (if not as good as a 301/401/Lenco). The old 1980's version of the fruitbox, despite its faults, always made vinyl entertaining to listen to, if not "through," if you see what I mean.