Reed Muse 3C turntable

You could try it both ways, but I would start with placing the bypass capacitance after the batteries and before the voltage regulator, if for no other reason than the fact that the relatively huge capacitance can play havoc with the output of a VR.

Exlibris, Two thoughts on your battery power: (1) Strange and pointless as it may seem, you may hear an improvement if you bypass the battery or batteries at their output with large value capacitance.  Try some huge value 16V electrolytics with the pos terminal connected to the pos node of the battery output and negative connected to ground.  16V electrolytics are small and cheap, relative to their capacitance, so this is a cheap tweak. Yes, batteries already make "pure" DC, but it's not perfectly pure; there is some high frequency noise generated as well, and in addition, the capacitance will reduce the output impedance of the power supply, always a good thing, and (2) always disconnect your charger when listening to music.  The charger itself can inject noise into the power output.

The drive system seems to have a lot in common with the Kuzma Reference, if and when the Muse 3C is used as a belt-drive. I do see some benefits to the belt-drive configuration, as compared with more typical belt-drives, and I guess having the pressure of two rim drive wheels evenly applied on each side of the driven disc also has some benefits, if you use it as a rim drive. I also see why staggering the diameters of the idlers and the driven wheel is wise, but I wonder what happens to speed accuracy if and when there is wear on any of the elements of the drive system. And do two rim-drivers impart more noise into the platter than one? Also, does it seem a bit confusing to the potential buyer, receiving a mixed message about belt- vs rim-drive? What does the inventor want it to be?

Parenthetically, I own a Reed 2A tonearm and love it.

Exlibris, Thanks for the candid nature of your post. I suspected that in this design, the belt drive might actually be superior to the rim drive mode. (I think of "rim drive" as the situation where the motor direct drives a wheel which is directly driving the outer rim of the platter, a la the Verus. Whereas "idler drive" describes a situation where the motor drives a shaft that drives a wheel that drives usually the inner rim of the platter, a la Garrard 301/401. The Thorens TD124 is both fish and fowl, the motor drives a belt that drives the idler.) Anyway, I have always thought that if I were ever to go back to belt-drive, the Kuzma Reference would be one of my top contenders, along with one or two others that take care with regard to belt creep and other ills associated with belts. The Muse in BD mode seems a lot like the Reference.