Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

So Harry is making his VPI Direct even better...
https://www.audionirvana.org/forum/the-audio-vault/analog-playback/turntables/10314-peek-at-vpi-aven...

And in the latest TAS, JV talks to Gunther Frohnhoefer of Acoustic Signature on his latest Invictus belt-drive and asks him about the "comeback" of Direct Drive...

Yes, I know there has been a little comeback of direct-drive motors. Invictus is a cost-no-object product. If we had thought a direct drive motor was significantly better, we would certainly have made an investment to design it. Yes, you can get better wow/flutter values with a direct-drive motor of high torque. This is the truth and nobody can deny it. Not even me. But at what price?
To begin with, a direct-drive motor is expensive. Great AC motors are readily available in Europe at reasonable prices. Direct-drive motors need to be produced in small quantities at high prices.
Normally a 3150Hz tone is used for measuring wow and flutter. However, if the centre hole of the record is minimally off-centre, you cannot achieve a stable 3150Hz tone no matter how perfectly your table spins.
So yes, direct-drives may have better values in principle, but you simply see/hear no advantage of those better values in real life because of these entering issues.

Sounds a little defensive to me.....😎

Halcro
You have edited out the most significant comment by Gunther Frohnhoefer of Acoustic Signature with regard to wow and flutter

But, yes, the direct-drive motor will still produce better wow/flutter values because we use belts, and belts are worse in wow and flutter than a direct-coupled motor.

It appears that they use stretchy belts. I suspect they have focussed on lowest noise and the stretch belts are a bandaid.

As an aside he claims the 6 AC motors get the 32kg platter on the Invictus up to speed in under 10 seconds.
My Final Audio VTT1 which uses one large AC motor can get its 26kg platter up to speed in less than 1 revolution ( 1.8seconds ).

So I can only conclude that the Invictus uses weaselly motors and stretchy belts. I also owned a Platine Verdier - weaselly motor and stretchy belt - the replacement of the Verdier drive system with that from the Final demonstrated clearly that low power motors are a source of instability even when using high inertia high mass platters. For best speed stability in belt drives you must have high inertia, high torque stable drive system and non stretchy belt such as silk or kevlar.

I also note that he comments that compared with Direct Drive motors he can get high quality AC motors at lower cost. He seems oblivious to the possibility of using AC motors in DD's or Induction motors for that matter.

Overall I am not impressed and sceptical about a TT, the Invictus, that has no published specifications on performance nor any technological information available. Furthermore their Tiderfolon bearing is simply an self lubricating material - it is not possible for it to be frictionless as claimed on their website. I use a custom self lubricating polymer bearing in my 1960 Pioneer broadcast idler drive TT ( that blew away the Platine Verdier in speed stability ), its not that radical.
  

Halcro
You have edited out the most significant comment by Gunther Frohnhoefer of Acoustic Signature with regard to wow and flutter

Dover,
Unless I was prepared to type out the whole two page interview here...I was bound to leave out many things he said.
I think it's debatable what the "most significant comment" may be..?

Halcro, yes but he ascribes the poor performance of belt drives with regard to wow and flutter to the belts  - and as I pointed out in my post, the belt system used in the Acoustic Signature Invictus is flawed, along with the motors utilised not having enough grunt to drive the platter properly. 

Dover,
I think his main point is that 'super' wow & flutter figures were unnecessary  because of record hole eccentricities which to me is just a 'cop out' 🙈