Alex. They bought the EMT 950 because it ran backwards. It is still a crappy TT for audiophile use. I think you meant tastes. It is not a matter of taste. A good turntable should do nothing but spin records. No rumble, no wow or flutter and no sound of its own. Every time I hear about a turntable sounding like this or that my eyes cross. A turntable should sound like nothing. The only thing you should be listening to is the cartridge.
There is a reason that the best turntables made use belt drive. It is the straightest path to the right result. It allows you to isolate the bearing as a separate entity and design it for the lowest rumble. As soon as you put a motor around it things get much more complicated. Having a bunch of electromagnetic stuff going on under your cartridge is never a good idea.
The Japanese are artists at making a simple proposal as complicated as possible. How many buttons on that remote do you actually use? They are wonderful at making small intricate things like cameras but when it comes to mundane tasks like spinning a record simplest is usually best.
To those guys who like old turntables like TD 124s or the Garrards, anything with an idler wheel, you need to improve the bass response of your systems. I am all for nostalgia but those turntables rumble like express trains. They are the reason belt drive came into being. They had no way of changing speed without a stepped pulley. Now we can do it electronically so there is absolutely no reason to add another bearing and a rubber wheel that will never stay round. They are Tim Burton's idea of what a turntable should be. They are museum pieces.
Alex, just because you like Qued ESL57s I'll have to admit you have good taste in speakers.
