Direct drive vs belt vs rim vs idler arm

For Richard (a Caravan tune from early days ;) )
"Ct0517 the TT under test was a Goldmund studio with a Syrinx PU3 arm and I think a Monster 2000 MC cartridge.
I agree it was an astonishing finding which clearly demonstrated the effect of stylus drag. I hasten to add that I am in no way criticizing the Goldmund. It was simply correctly doing what it was designed to do. From memory it had a 2.5 kg platter with lead weights around its circumference. Thus for its weight, the platter had a relatively high moment of inertia."

Way back in 1990/91 as a young man I owned a GOLDMUND STUDIO, would you believe ! But I didn´t have absolutely no idea of it´s speed stability as such, I hardly did know that such phenomenon as speed stability in record play existed, LOL. Young and foolish I was but eventually I had to get rid of the damn thing because I was so disappointed about it´s sound quality ! But I did realize one thing: Studio´s flimsy floating suspension is not a good idea at all. In fact it´s the biggest mistake GOLDMUND ever did. I changed it to ORACLE DELPHI MK.II.5. I lost a minor fortune but got much better TT instead. Oh, those were the days in the beginning of my hi-fi career... LOL.

Of course, as we all know nowadays, ORACLE´s HANGING suspension is way better than Studio´s and probably all others´ implementations as well.
I think ORACLE´s suspension is the very finest ever designed on the Planet, especially in the latest model the Mark VI with fluid damping.

The belt driven ORACLE smoked the DD STUDIO in sound quality. With the SME III/SHURE ULTRA 500. Obviously the very compliant ULTRA didn´t like STUDIO´s flimsy suspension. Were a less compliant MC a better choice for STUDIO I would never know...:/

More that 20 years later I tried a direct rim drive with the DELHI platter... but that´s another story. Of course ;)

Harold, how would you compare the Oracle hanging suspension to those of SME and Basis? I'm just curious, because they are also belt drive systems that use fairly developed suspension systems.

Peter, Basis turntables are suspended? I guess the top models in the line have pneumatic feet. I usually think of such turntables as un-suspended.

Lewm
Peter, Basis turntables are suspended? I guess the top models in the line have pneumatic feet. I usually think of such turntables as un-suspended.

Not directed to me, but the Basis Debut Gold is for sure hanging suspension.

The four towers on each corner rotate to adjust hidden springs within enclosed silicone cylinders, allowing for both level and tweaking of the damping rate. Basis even offers different springs so you can adjust precisely for different tonearm mass.

I owned two or three of these, the suspension system is well designed and very effective at isolating the table, arm and cartridge from floor borne input.

Peter/Lewn

My apologies totally forgetting BASIS turntables and their very sophisticated suspension system. I couldn´t find more info of its functional mode online but if it is tuneable/adjustable for different weighting TA´s everything´s OK. Well the BASIS flagship, The Work of Art must be something very special in suspended turntables, probably the very best designed so far. A stunning machine anyway.

The SME seems also adjustable for certain TA´s so if it´s truly a balanced system it must sound good as well. A suspension hanging on rubber rings is an antithesis to metal springs. Likely both systems have a certain characteristic sound of their own, depending how effective the damping systems are.

Albert, thanks for letting us know your BASIS experiences.

To get the best out of a suspended deck its subchassis must be perfectly levelled, balanced & tuned for a certain arm/cart combination. When applied downward force on to spindle there should be only up and down movement of the subchassis, no wobbling sideways whatsoever. If not, the sound especially in lower frequencies is always smeared in some extend. A suspension must work mechanically perfect, this is the starting point.

The ORACLE´s 3 spring suspension consists of 8 different parts in each spring ass´y. The latest model has also fluid damping added. It´s fully balanceable & tuneable for different TA´s. Yes, one can actually tune to a certain sound if necessary. To finetune an ORACLE is never easy but if one is married to one (for decades like me) it comes a second nature LOL. An ingenious system, but its manufacturing tolerances must be very low.
In fact, I have owned 4 DELPHI´s, 2 MKII´s, MKIII and MKIV. The MK IV with hard mat was a mission impossible to finetune sonically, I didn´t like its stiffer spring ass´y at all. It sounded awful :/ And the MKIII was impossible to finetune mechanically due to a slightly wrong placing of the adjustment stems for the springs. But it didn´t sound so bad LOL.

Let me take this opportunity to introduce you the ORACLE MKII.7 suspension in action (the video is very old, sorry for bad sound quality):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Ql9Gq6ir7hA