In the fading late October light of a dank, misty car park just a stone’s throw from historic Runnymede, near Windsor – where Magna Carta was signed eight centuries ago – an altogether shadier and less salubrious event is captured for posterity…
Here we see top international hi-fi scribes Tim Jarman and Adam Smith (pictured left and right respectively) just about to exchange two pieces of classic analogue ‘merchandise’. Can you name the two turntables involved, and tell us who drove away with the better deal?
The first respondent to get all three answers right in the comments section below gets to chose between a signed photograph of this auspicious occasion by the luminaries themselves, or a specially melted commemorative Curly Wurly chocolate bar that’s been too long in the glovebox of Tim’s car…
zStereo 
Garrard SP25 on the left.
Can I please have the Curly Wurly wrapper?
Close, but no cigar – I mean, confectionary!
OK Garrard SP25 MK1V
Now do I get the wrapper?
No way, Jose. But tell me the year of the SP25 and you’re on your way…
You’re a hard taskmaster!
The Garrard I had in mind was 1979-1980, but on closer inspection I see the photo has a little notch to lift the lid, but otherwise a very similar style.
That smoked perspex is casting a shadow on my murky past, grasping at straws… is it perhaps a Lenco?
(chances of winning even the curly wurly wrapper are fast fading along with distant memories of wow and flutter!)
Okay – I’ll give you a clue, it was the revised version of the SP25 IV, which came out two years before the Mark V… 1979 is a good few years too late. By that time it was the Disco Driver 80!
https://zstereo.co.uk/2014/11/13/garrard-sp25/
Sony PS-X9
Correct – and so who got the better deal?
Never heard any of them, but Sony it’s a way more rare and technically impressive player to own. It would look lovely alongside Elcasets.
I’d take the Sony for sure! It’s a beautiful and rare machine.
Probably Tim, unless the Sony required repair in which case he will be spending a long time alone in the shed.