Back in 1987 I picked up a TD124 MkII for $75 at Cosmophonic Sound, NYC. I mounted an AR arm bought from Sam Tellig (80s AR TT reissue, probably a Jelco OEM ? not the funky but good sounding 60s higher mass Vilchur original) + Grado GTE+1. At that time I had a heavily modified Merrill/AR - Narra plinth damped with clay, acrylic sub-chassis, upgraded bearing, lead damped/balanced platter + Merrill/Hurst motor, SOTA acrylic mat and reflex clamp, Sumiko FT3 arm on VTA-16 base/Grado Signature 8MX, feeding a conrad-johnson PV2aR preamp---> Berning EA230---> Magnepan SMGa or Rogers LS3/5A wrapped up with Straightwire cables and VPI bricks on preamp and amp. The humble TD124II/AR arm/GTE+1 played a lot more records than the AR/Merrill. The plinth was just a simple wooden box but I purchased NOS mushrooms...
As a musician, the one thing the AR/Merrill/FT3/8mx could not match was speed stability. I was about to purchase a Merrill external power supply when I read a DIY article that it is basically a powerful amplifier driven by a 60hz oscillator. Driven by a 60hz signal I bridged my back up Hafler DH120 amp, the Merrill/Hurst motor was driven from the speaker terminals...still could not match the TD124II in terms of absolute pitch stability. Wow on sustained piano chords on the AR/Merrill still bothered me
Being an avid TAS/Stereophile subscriber/reader then, I was in denial that the TD124II was the superior turntable.
I came home in '88 with all my audio equipment. I kept using the TD124II for LPs I collect for musical reasons while the AR/Merrill played audiophile discs....by 1992 I was back in the USA and setting up another audio system. I won an older cream TD124 + Ortofon arm for $1 at an antique auction. While working for Steve M. at Angela Instruments, I met Joe Roberts and read his premiere issue of Sound Practices. In his WE91A article he was using a TD124...I was no longer a closet idler drive user....
Years passed and I wondered whatever happened to my first TD124II, when I came home in '08 I discovered it is now in the possession of a very good friend