I've been at this hobby for 66 years and was ready to try something different. My prior rig was a VPI TNT Jr upgraded with a TNT MKV platter. Upgraded to a flywheel and started using a silk thread belt from flywheel to platter. I used the VPI SDS and then the SOTA Total eclipse package. The upgrades were over the course of 20 years. One constant was my Eminent Technology ET 2.0/2.5 tonearm I've owned since 1986, carried over from a SOTA Star Sapphire that's been gathering dust all this time. I was just ready to try something different and took a chance on an idler drive, specifically a PTP-12. I moved the ET over to it with no major issues. I was hoping for more immediacy / prat and expected possibly a higher noise floor. That did happen, and I also was pleased to hear an improvement in stringed instruments, especially picked acoustic ones like guitars, harps, and mandolins. The way I can describe it is that it sounds like the strings are "tighter", more realistic. It's not an exaggerated effect and comes through very noticeably on harps. I have a Myajimi Shilabe and a retipped Ortofon Cadenza bronze. The Shilabe was OK, but there was an increase in hum as the needle moved closer to the center of the LP. It even hummed when the cartridge was lifted up at the end of the LP. It's a known issue with Lenco based turntables given the location of the motor right under the platter. I installed the Ortofon and there's no hum with it. The noise floor is fine, lower than I was expecting given the switch from the VPI silk thread / flywheel belt drive to an idler drive. Got me interested again in LP's I've played too many times to count. Which is nice.
