Why will no other turntable beat the EMT 927?

08-18-13: Richardkrebs
I totally agree with your assessment of the SP10 MK3. However this is, IMO not a result of its design, the use of a servo, or DD. I believe it is the way it is built. The tension, greyness and lack of ebb and flow, can be significantly mitigated.

I dont agree with this comment. I hear a dissembling of musical flow and timing from the SP10's including the ones you have rebuilt.
If we compare direct drives on their own, the Kenwood L07D and SP10 sound quite different in terms of musical flow and timing. The SP10mk3 will measure better than the L07D because the L07D error correction servos only work when the speed error is quite large. The L07D relies on inertia to minimise tiny speed inaccuracies, whereas the SP10mk3 servos are much more aggressive.
The differences in the implementation of servos and their operating parameters are clearly discernible in the musical presentation of these 2 DD's which are quite different.
The Technics SP10's in particular dissemble the music, musical timing and expression becomes compartmentalised and lacks flow. Jean Nantais has expressed the same view, he prefers the softer servos as used in the Sony DD's to the SP10.
From my listening experiences neither of these DD's would compete with the top Micro Seiki's that I have heard in the areas of musical flow and coherence. The Gestalt of the music is lost with these DD's compared to a well implemented inertia driven system.
It may well be that if one has lived with Direct Drives with the intrinsic servo jitter for 30 years or so it is possible ones ear does not detect these issues the way that others do.
By the way, in response to your posts in the ET2 thread, I have now heard the full krebsupgrade and the SP10 in question sounds more woolly and ill defined than the earlier mule version of the exact same deck.

Tbg,
Tommy is right. Specific parts are not available without a 'donor' TT.
You may find This Thread amusing?

On the other hand.......new capacitors are all available....and Lewm has discovered that by Googling the transistor part Nos easily obtained from the Technical Manual on Vinyl Engine.......one can find replacements for all the transistors and ICs used in the TT-101 HERE

Life is too short to worry about the future.......?
My audio journey would be a lot poorer without the Victor TT-101 :-)

Dear Richardkrebs, thanks for sharing. Like the EMT 930 the SP10 were created with a different set of goals from the 927 by their designers. While you might tweak them you can't change their nature.

Lew,

I did dismiss turntables with lightweight platters, until I heard a Mitchell Cotter. The motor can provide the needed system inertia, though. By the way, the EMT 927 platter is fairly lightweight. It is around 12.5 lbs. not counting the mat, if my memory serves me.

According to Mark Kelly's math, 35 lbs. is the cutoff point for the weight of an idler type turntable, but I have never put it to the test.

The servo mechanism used in top Denons seems to have a leg up on the others I have heard, but my exposure is extremely limited.

Dover.

Thank you again for your interest in my upgrade, re the "woolly" comment, you are quite correct. Please refer to my web site where this phenomena is specifically discussed. It takes months for this trait to settle, whereupon it becomes superior to the original. See also the comments from Joe of Pass Labs, covering this topic.

Dkarmeli.

Thank you for the feedback. I have not heard a 927, but from the pictures it appears to be a superbly engineered machine.