Direct Drive vs. Idler Drive vs. Belt drive

rauliruegas

This what Mike posted:
"when we consider belts, idlers, and direct drive........2 of those have the choice of no servo’s."

Not true. There are belt-drive 'tables with servo control, such as the Oracle Delphi III that I once owned. Some SOTAs too, I think.

looscannon

The AR XA was a ground breaking turntable. Not only was it less expensive than everything else. It was also better performing and not by a little. It's only over site was the lack of anti skate.

The AR turntable was indeed groundbreaking and its three-point suspension design has been widely imitated and refined. But the pickup arm was just awful. AR used somewhat better arms in later iterations of the design, but serious AR 'table owners chose their own.

billwojo

One thing I have found in common with all of the popular British TT is the constant need for upgrades.

Actually, there is no "need" for an upgrade. Without the upgrade, your turntable will perform exactly the same as it always did. An upgrade is just an option for those that might want to seek improvement. It’s the same as when a company such as Audio Research offers upgrades to its electronics; the availability of an upgrade doesn’t diminish the performance of your existing component.

Oddly, some audiophiles complain when upgrades are not made available for existing product, claiming that it reflects "planned obsolescence" and lessens the value of their existing product. That argument does seem to have some validity.

lewm

Nearly everyone who replaces a 1kg platter mat on a DD with a 5kg platter mat, sometimes more than doubling the total mass of platter plus mat, says how wonderful it is. To me this says more about listener bias than it does about the physics.

Why? The physics of the situation are obviously different, so why would you discount that?

mikelavigne

... execution is way more significant in ultimate turntable drive satisfaction than dogma...

I think this is true of turntables in particular and just about everything in audio in general. The notion that one technology or design approach is inherently superior to others is misguided because it ignores countless other variables.

There are many threads here that debate this. There is no consensus.

As with so many things in audio, it's best to listen and decide for yourself.