David Price looks at one-time king of turntables, Ariston's RD11

Ariston was once one of hi-fi's most illustrious brands. The proud name on one of Scotland's finest turntables, it was revered by many a well-heeled Seventies audiophile. Nowadays, though, the brand is a shadow of its former self, the name branded on inexpensive, mass-market DJ turntables.

The course of the Ariston story depends on who tells it - to this day it remains clouded by controversy. The gist is that, back in the early Seventies, Hamish Robertson approached a fresh- faced Ivor Tiefenbrun with a business idea. Ivor's dad owned an engineering facility in Glasgow, which Hamish wanted to manufacture his Ariston turntable. Although the deal came to nothing, soon after Ivor formed Linn Products and launched the LP12, a high- end deck in many ways similar to the Ariston. Hamish and Ivor duly fell out, one accusing the other of plagiarism.

This allegation is open to contention, since, despite the decksí obvious similarities, both owed a great debt to Thorens' TD 150, not to mention the original AR turntable. In truth, until the advent of the Oracle and Michell GyroDec (which appeared within weeks of each other in 1981), all belt-drive decks were pretty similarly fashioned. 

The RDl 1 was a heavily-built, suspended sub-chassis design with a massive two-section die-cast platter weighing 5.5kg. This was driven via a square-section neoprene belt by a 24 pole AC synchronous motor - speed change was effected by moving the belt on the stepped pulley. The steel sub-chassis was mounted on coil springs to decouple it from the solid, real-wood plinth, and a decent acrylic lid completed the package.

True enough, this will all be familiar to LP12 owners, even down to the heavy rubber mat which early Sondeks also featured. The only obvious visual differences were the smaller, circular armboard the Ariston used, the position of the On/Off switch (which was on the front right of the deck) and the very Seventies pin-stripes around the inside of the plinth top. Measured specs were similar to pre-Valhalla Linns as well, contemporary reviews putting rumble at -73dB and wow and flutter around 0.06%WRMS - very good figures for the day.

The RDl 1's subjective sound quality was excellent in a 1970s sort of way, clean and open with powerful, extended bass and crisp highs. By modern standards imaging is poor, the midband coloured and the bass rather loose, but it still makes a pleasingly euphonic sound. Modern super-decks are often too analytical for their own good, a criticism you couldn't level at the Ariston which sounds big, fat and warm regardless of what's actually on the record!

SME's Series 111 tone-arm was a favourite partner for the RDl11 and the two worked nicely together. Other popular marriages were with Grace's G707, ADC's low-mass LMF arms, Rega's Acos-derived R200 and SME's ubiquitous 3009S2. These days the obvious choice is Rega's RB300, although SME's 309 and Series IV are both said to work reasonably well.

So what possible value could this old deck have in 1998? Well, the great thing about RD11s is that they're heavily underpriced second-hand, making for a fantastic sound-per-pound ratio. Although the Ariston's performance isn't a million miles behind early Sondeks, the price is!

Pay £100 for a good early RD11 or £150 for a later Superior and you'll have a cracking high-end deck for sub-Rega money. Spares aren't plentiful but Manticore (tel: 01767 318437) does a good job of keeping these decks spinning, supplying armboards, belts and motors at very reasonable prices.

Drawbacks? Aristons are pigs to set up - they need hours of fiddling with P-clips, suspension spring locknuts and belt alignment adjusters to give of their best. Still, some would say that's half the fun! Sadly, the Ariston story doesn't have a happy ending. 

The company went down-market in the early Eighties, making some pretty good budget tackle like the RD40, 80 and Icon. But the advent of CD finished Ariston as a hi-fi company, and, despite some last-ditch attempts at diversifying into electronics, it was game over.