Direct drive vs belt vs rim vs idler arm

Zd542, You are of course entitled to your opinion, as is anyone else, but it would be well to keep your facts straight. Like it or not, in a DD turntable, the motor is not "attached" to the platter in the way you seem to think. Rather, the platter is part of the motor. Typically, the platter is attached to a permanent magnet that revolves around, but makes no contact with, the motor's coils. Thus, nothing at all is in contact with the platter except the bearing, not even a belt. Any well designed DD turntable can compare equally or favorably to any BD turntable, in terms of noise. (In a BD turntable, there really IS an external motor connected to the platter by its noisiest part, its drive shaft, via the belt.) You may still not like DD turntables, but find another reason. Perhaps it sounds better if you use the term "magnetic drive", which seems to be all the rage among hi-end BD turntable makers these days. They are one and the same thing.

As with most of the group answering, I own all of the types mentioned, and at many different price points ranging from $8K to $29. My most played TT? Denon 47F, 103 cartridge. As Ron of rotisserie fame tells us, 'set it and forget it.'

ZD542

Which DD are good ?
NVS, Technics SP 10MK II & MK III, The Beat, Brinkmann, Rockport, flagship models from Sony, Denon, JVC, Kenwood, Yamaha and Pioneer's top decks to name a few.
Take care,

I agree with Viridian, execution of whatever design philosophy is the key, not the philosophy per se. Then comes the ears and brain of the listener and all the other things in life that bias us to prefer one thing vs another. (I find that I prefer brunettes, for example.)

Of all the DD turntables I have owned, I would say that three stand out as "best" in my mind: The Luxman PD-441, PD-444 and the Teac TN-400. The two Luxman decks share the same drive system, but the latter with a larger plinth to accommodate two tonearms. The TN-400 is probably the most quiet drive system I have ever seen (heard?), but they didn't make many and so are fairly rare.