Yamaha PF-1000
Yamaha PF-800

For once, we got what the japanese didn't get. Of course there was a trade-off : we didn't get the GT-2000... The engineering was, however, quite different from the earlier PX series but the source, as for the GT-2000 series, was mostly -you guessed it- Micro Seiki !

The PF-1000 and PF-800 are sub-platter belt-driven and 3-point "feather" suspended chassis on inverted springs with rubber surrounds. The left and right cartridge wires are separated in the techno-looking but dynamically balanced tonearm for better separation. The resin-cast FG motor supports a double platter, the outer part of which is made of aluminium, the inner part of diecast zinc in the PF-800 and bronze in the PF-1000. Apart from that difference and the weight it implies, the 1000 and 800 are identical. The US market saw in small quantities a specific version of the PF-1000 with a walnut veneer and brushed aluminium top parts ; the PF-1000 was sadly black as the PF-800 in Europe.

Audiophile touches lie in the conductive carbon-fiber resin headshells, high-quality gold plated terminals, the delivered record clamp with strobe pattern, the dynamic balancing of the tonearm and the equally dynamic damping of the tonearm's counterweight. The resonance frequency was set at 12Hz : a frequency where, according to the Yamaha engineers, there is the least record warp and the least music. The Twin-Pipe system is a medium mass tonearm and allows better resistance to flexing while avoiding potential capacitive coupling of L and R signal leads. However, at 10mg friction for the tonearm's bearings, we're far from a Technics EPA-100...
You may read a detailed writeup on the PF-800 at Polk Audio forums.

Click the buttons below for the cutout views, graphs and specs !