Ariston RD-20

Name: Ariston RD-20
Brand: Ariston

Documentation on the Ariston RD-20 is thin. What survives comes almost entirely from period advertisements and a brief mention in a buying guide. It appears to have been Ariston's budget model in the mid-1980s, a semiautomatic belt-drive turntable that sat below the company's better-known RD-40 line.

A 1985 buyer's guide in High Fidelity (September 1985, p.39) listed the RD-20 at $250. It called the deck a semiautomatic model for the budget-conscious buyer and noted that it shared its basic belt-drive layout with Ariston's more expensive decks. By 1987, a classified ad in Audio (May 1987, p.150) was offering the "RD-20S" - a variant designation - as a blow-out clearance item at $99.95 plus shipping. It was sold without cartridge. The ad called it a "quality belt-drive turntable from Scotland."

No service manual, original specifications or production dates have surfaced in the public record. The exact differences between the RD-20 and RD-20S, if any, are not documented. Given the clearance price, the model seems to have been short-lived.