direct drive tt's?


It is very hard for someone who grew up in the cd era to know much about turntables, and what to look for and what to avoid. No area dealers have analog set-ups I can listen to, and I am the only person I know who even listens to records. So I thought I'd post here to gain a little knowledge hopefully.

I found a early 70's Miida direct drive turntable in the trash a few months ago. Model number 3115 I believe. The thing was in fine condition, very clean, and ran much quieter than the Thorens 140 belt-drive tt that I was using, so out went the Thorens and in went the Miida. But what I want to know is, what are the shortcomings of dd turntables? What kind of tweaks might be worth experimenting with to get the maximum out of the tt, or are such turntables not worth even fiddling with? What cartidges would be worth thinking about for such a tt, and for the quality of records I play (my collection is mostly from thrift stores and yard sales, but I do have a nitty gritty to clean my finds, and I also have some valuable records I certainly do NOT want to do harm to)? Is it possible or worthwhile to upgrade the tonearm on such a table?

Any advice and information would be welcomed. As I say, its hard to know much about vinyl playback and its subtleties when all you have ever seen are cd's and digital gear.

btw, I run the ol' retro-looking miida into BAT electronics and Snell loudspeakers.

thanks :)
pcanis
pcanis

Showing 1 response by keis

All AC motors have poles. The better table motors have 24 poles, some more. As you turn the motor and each pole comes into play and adds torque you get a speed up and as the poles move away from the stator the magnetic push goes down so you get a slight variation in torque 24 times per rotation with a 24 pole motor on a dd. You remove this WOW in two ways. Mass - make your platter very heavy so momentum damps out the hills and valleys of the torque change. Elasticity - use a rubber band to dampen out the WOW. When a dd motor turns one rotation you get the 24 dips and valleys. When a rubber band drive motor turns one full turn the platter only turns a small fraction (ie small pully on the motor vs a large diameter of the platter so the full rotation of the platter might be equivalent to a 240 pole motor. Lastly you can't isolate bearing rumble from the motor with a direct connection mechanically to the platter, record, phono cartridge.