I have heard the Walker in a friend's system, and I think it is fantastic. I never heard it side by side with any direct-drive turntable, and frankly I would be surprised if an SP10 Mk2 could "trounce" a Walker, regardless of the plinth used, but I have no argument with what someone else heard. However, the finding spurred me to experiment with direct- and idler-drive turntables, because there is no way I am going to afford a Walker.
My completely empirical thoughts on the subject of plinths and platters is as follows: For belt-drive turntables, minimal or no plinth and a very massive platter correlate positively with performance. One can argue all day long about whether the motor for a BD table needs to be strong to control the platter or weak to allow platter mass to dominate. I don't know; both ways could work if designed well. Multiple motors for BD seems silly to me. For direct-drive turntables, a well-designed plinth seems to help. I will grant Raul's contention that I/we have not experimented with no or a minimal plinth, but I certainly have experimented with light weight bad plinths, and they do harm rather than good. I think platter mass is probably less important for DD than for BD. I think I am going to like core-less motors over other types (based on what owners say about the Exclusive P3, and what I hear from my Kenwood L07D), and I think there should be "enough" torque to control the platter, but massive or excessive torque may not be a dominant requirement. For DD, the motor control mechanism is very important (duh!).
My completely empirical thoughts on the subject of plinths and platters is as follows: For belt-drive turntables, minimal or no plinth and a very massive platter correlate positively with performance. One can argue all day long about whether the motor for a BD table needs to be strong to control the platter or weak to allow platter mass to dominate. I don't know; both ways could work if designed well. Multiple motors for BD seems silly to me. For direct-drive turntables, a well-designed plinth seems to help. I will grant Raul's contention that I/we have not experimented with no or a minimal plinth, but I certainly have experimented with light weight bad plinths, and they do harm rather than good. I think platter mass is probably less important for DD than for BD. I think I am going to like core-less motors over other types (based on what owners say about the Exclusive P3, and what I hear from my Kenwood L07D), and I think there should be "enough" torque to control the platter, but massive or excessive torque may not be a dominant requirement. For DD, the motor control mechanism is very important (duh!).
