Yamaha YP-700

Belt-drive record player which was perhaps produced by CEC - Micro Seiki was mainly overbooked with high and ultra-high end commissions.

It is only when Yamaha started to tackle the idea of tangential tonearms that a team was gathered around Mr Moshida for the specific purpose of Yamaha audio turntables.


The YP-700 is a simple mid-fi with dual-floating system and a tonearm's gravity center placed right at record level (both being touted as "Yamaha's unique features"), a lateral balancer (weight) plus anti-skating (thread).

The cartridge shown in the US catalog is also Yamaha's "unique" CG-7000 - a 0.7 spherical diamond rebadge of... somebody else's !


The YP-700 was, btw, also available as a Sonab 75S, in black and with a different, j-shaped, tonearm, and as a YP-700C in very smart looking semi-matte silver guise and with a clearer wood base.

Another version, sans cueing switch, was also available as built inside the 1972 Yamaha FS-55 Japan-only cutie system.