To many, many, many people (all morons of course) I would say. Almost
everyone I knew who was interested in audio got one around 1980 ish.


I messed around with various decks in the 70's/80's and would confirm that
there was a different sound, although perhaps as much due to arm/cartridge
as the deck. But due to the ridiculous Linn/Naim worship in the hi-fi mags
and the "Jehovas Witnesses" approach of their dealers - "if you can't hear
the vast improvement then you just don't understand" - I swore that I would
never, ever buy anything from Linn.

Funnily enough one of the reasons I finally settled on a Michell Gyrodeck,
apart from the aesthetics which you either like or you don't, was what was
intended to be a negative review in one of the comics which tested a variety
of "top-end" decks, arms and cartridges. They didn't like the Gyro, because
the arms/cartridges sounded different when mated to the Gyro. Hang on,
thought I, isn't that the whole point? You should be able to mess around to
your heart's content with arms and cartridge, with the deck itself
contributing absolutely nothing to the sound?

I suppose I have an inherent preference for items designed by experienced
engineers rather than marketing whizzkids. I've still got the Gyro, by the
way, coupled with an SME5 and Transfiguration, which I reckon will see my
ears out.

Geoff