What's the deal with idler turntables and do they have a place in modern HiFi?

"Torque should come where it is supposed to come from and thats from the motor. "

imo - the torque should come from the part the record interfaces with - the platter. 8^0

@mjperry (OP) I own a direct drive, idler drive, and previously a number of belt converted to thread drives.  My reference is a string drive.

You can see the idler drive I own on my virtual system. I think they are alot of fun (especially with rock music) and remind me of big American iron cars from the 70's.

Great in a straight line, but noisy. and hit that first curve and you realize the part that is weak ... the brakes.

From an audiophile perspective most noticeable on Classical music with big dynamic swings meaning big groove modulations followed by small. The wheel can't slow down, and gives you a little blip in the sound - an upbeat so to speak - that I personally feel imo that some like to call PRAT :^)
   
The above is a memory taken from a serious audiophile nervosa phase.

Again really fun tables, but you can't just buy a stock table and build a plinth for it. There will be a big learning curve.   

The best designs I have seen - imo - focus very heavily on decoupling the plinth from the noisy motor. Mine is multiple layers of different wood and has large voids in the 100 lb plinth where the armboards bolt to.

Hi Tom
I went through many threads years ago with the vpi table. With the verdier i do have his French thread but prefer one i found at fabricland. Gutermann but the exact one i need to look further.. the deck has  been designed for thread so its string/thread is applied very loose. This technique would never work on a belt drive being converted to thread.

In a bit of a crisis as i up at the lake and my lenovo, not to be confused with lenco, just died on me. Bears can’t provide me with spare memory cards which i think it is. I selfishly ask for help from almarg or others here. It is beeping 3 times will not power up. I have tried reinserting the memory card. Did not work.

Re: lenco. Just an observation.

From three decks l75 i found when used in the actual speed slot, the notch for say 33.33 they run fast. Is this by design to deal with stylus drag? Idk. The swiss engineers were very smart and the motor itself a thing of beauty - to me. But it is all hooked up to a mechanical wheel. Setting the speed a little slower is a bit of a pita, but once set it runs fine other than what i noted in previous post. But all that damping in the plinth does have its effect. It is very musical just not as extended as my other deck.

Sorry for any typos - hate using this forum on a phone.

Thom -I agree with your comments. As well I find it interesting that the higher up the ladder you go on a TT manufacturers line - the platter becomes heavier, whether we are talking about new tables, or restoring vintage ones. My Jean Nantais Lenco has an added heavy Metacrylate mat permanently glued to the Lenco platter matter. Whether this is for noise sinking and/or or speed stability, one thing is true from my own experiences - you need good brakes. You rarely hear any forum discussions on how a platter is doing its braking ?  the Platine is the only table i am aware whose platter system by design is "smart",  has braking from the opposed magnets to deal with the record behavior without electronics. 

When I introduced the 100 Lb Jean Nantais lenco idler into the room I was on version 6? of my DD project, and the modded TNT at the time was still running on belts used with the SDS. The Lenco raised the bar is some categories. I was impressed with the noise reduction with no suspension, solely based on damping and weight. The modded TNT matched the Lenco in tempo once thread was added, but it was not designed to run this way. . Then the Platine was added and ..... the delta so large that I just got back to listening to records.  Been 3 years now I think.  
 

Pani - But I ultimately felt it is not keeping up with the tempo and pitch of the music. Music seemed to be dragging a bit.

Pani - imo there are too many variables with vinyl to single out one area of a turntable system whether the table itself, tonearm, cartridge, wiring, phono stage.They all play a part.  You can change out a cartridge with different stylus profile and experience your symptoms. Heck, you can move your speakers, cause bass issues which will produce your symptoms. You need to get the bass right for your selected speakers set up in the room or the music will drag... period. That has been my experience especially with speakers that are able to reproduce bass to provide compression in the room.   
 
So the turntable system has many parts and its the front end to the rest of your system. In the end it is setup error and it is all fixable. Whether someone chooses to fix the issue, or move to something else depends on them. I say this from personal experience and I think we have all made setup errors. I think you owned the Nouvelle Verdier table ?

fixed my Lenovo laptop i think.
I pulled the memory card and battery overnight. when I powered it up I held f11 and it did go into setup mode. I ran the repair.  It took for a bit but failed again.  i had to do this 3 times. Now it is working but I am afraid turn if off. :^( 

Persistence does pays off. 
 

Thanks Al :^)
What better place to ask a computer question than on an analog thread.
thanks to the Op. 

happy listening

Long live the idlers ....

just remembered - a tip for Lenco idler owners
if you are travelling or your table will be not used for a while and you are using the hard rubber wheel.

1) Remove the platter and store it in a safe place. 2) Unclip the spring from the wheel.

This will prevent wear on the spring and keep flat spots from developing on the wheel. Unlike a stored car, you can not pump up the psi on an idler wheel when stored....   :^)

@Thuchan

what material is your EMT wheel made of ?