Yamaha PF-1000

For once, we got what the japanese didn't get.
Of course, there was a trade-off : the GT-2000 series remained in Japan.

The engineering was, however, quite different from the not so distant PX or the contemporay GT series - strange to see a brand advocating for two completely different systems at home and abroad, and both being, previsibly, the best and least compromised designs :)


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 diecast aluminium, the inner part of zinc in the PF-800 and bronze in the PF-1000.
Apart from that difference and gold-plated RCA terminals for the PF-1000, the 1000 and 800 are identical.

Audiophile touches lie in the conductive carbon-fiber resin headshell, the 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 an "optimum" 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...


The US market only saw the PF-1000 with a walnut veneer and beautiful brushed aluminium top parts. In Europe, the PF-1000 was sadly as black as the PF-800.
The US market also was handed the PF-30 which sported the same belt + suspended chassis with three protruding gold posts ; apart from that visual similarity, the PF-30 is a much low-low-lower-end thing.


You may read a detailed writeup about the PF-800 at Polk Audio forums.