As part of an exhibit dedicated to the Triumph motorcycle, designers took spare parts from the bikes and made new things - like this awesome Triumph turntable:

It's pretty much just an Ariston RD80 transcription turntable with the platter replaced by the brake rotor of a Triumph, which will probably wreck the turntable's motor due to weight and inertia after a while, but, hey, with that kick-ass Triumph thing bolted to the side in such a way as to prevent the cover from closing, it - um, crap, how could somebody take two things like an RD80 and a Triumph and make something that sucks? They could have added some racing stripes to make it sound faster, too.

It's not just a, "buy $5,000 worth of parts and you'll have an excellent turntable," but far more home-brew geekery at work. Build your own record player, using such awesome parts as a Harley Davidson valve and bearing, and stepper motors taken from hard drives. His turntable can kick your turntable's fucking ass.

Audiowood has some excellent real-wood turntables for the discering audiophile. If you've had to pull apart a turntable to fix it (or at least change a belt) you know that they pretty much all work the same inside, and they're inserted into different housings depending on need. Audiowood uses solid fine wood to create beautiful turntable housings that look like they belong in a hunter's shack or in the game room of some lodge. They don't use a crappy BSR or made-in-China-for-Walmart dropins, though; the turntable and tonearm are quality machinery, and when combined with a dense, heavy mounting material I'm sure they sound great. They don't display prices, which, of course, means a working stiff like me probably can't afford them...but a guy can wish, you know.

produces this entry in the Pro-Ject line of audio equipment: The Genie 2. It's what it looks like what you'd have if you trimmed everything off a record player except for the basic necessary things to get sound off the vinyl. Then, they used the highest quality parts for those remaining pieces. The high-torque motor is decoupled from the turntable's base, it uses a high-quality (but relatively low-cost) Ortofon OM 3E, and the tonearm, bearings, and platter are all finely tuned and balanced. It's high-end audio with a middling pricepoint.via