My personal experience with Direct Drive versus Belt Drive

The old Lenco I use has a rim drive and I do prefer it to the belt drive, it is more accurate and less noise.  Not sure about other tables.  That being said, the phono stage I use is what makes the sound special.  The other things, table, footers, etc. help out but not close to how the phono improves the sound.  Happy Listening.

Wow I'm jealous! I wish I had $10k to drop on a table. I've got about half that in my analog setup right now, and am very pleased with it. But, being an audiophile, nothing is ever, "good enough", so I'm always listening for that next upgrade. 

 I have to agree with Lewm, just because you liked that one table over the other doesn't mean all BD's will please you more than all DD's.  But I will say that I too hold a similar belief about Belt Drive sounding better, on average. 

There are inherent differences in design around each principle. Belt drives tend to have heavier platters, the motors are located farther from the cartridge, and in high end, the motor is often not even connected to the plinth. And the motor runs at higher RPM's than a Direct Drive. The Direct Drive has a pancake motor, that runs at 33.33. It supports the platter, the bearing is weighing on the motor quite often. And it places the motor windings in close proximity to the cartridge. The voltage fed to the motor is often electronically regulated, phase lock looped, to maintain perfect speed. Anyway, my point is, these differences in architecture have an effect on how the record is played.

I think the simplicity of a Belt Drive is why it sounds better, conveys more of the music, gets in the way less (at a given price point).  A simple bearing supports a heavy platter and the motor is isolated from the playback both in distance and isolation of the belt's elasticity. Higher RPM's smooth out motor pulses. So many things are right about Belt Drive. It solves many of the problems involved, except for one. Accuracy of speed. And that's where Direct Drive excels! But in doing so, it undoes so many of the things Belt Drive does right. Then suddenly platter weight, proximity of the motor, main bearing, and all those things must be dealt with differently. And what you wind up with are two very different sounding solutions to analog playback. Then there is rim Drive and idle wheel drive, they lie somewhere in the middle. Always a trade off, nothing is perfect. 

"The motors are located farther from the cartridge".  But in a DD turntable, the platter IS the rotor.  There is no separated motor assembly to "make noise"; the platter is motivated to rotate only by virtue of its being a part of the rotor, being influenced by the magnetic field of the stator.  Nothing touches the platter, in other words. The only mechanical noise can come from the bearing assembly, as with any other type of turntable.  

Whereas, in a BD turntable, the motor pulley bearing is under constant tension biasing it to one side as it pulls against the platter, which is likewise biased in the direction of the pulley, which cannot help but generate noise. That mechanical noise can be transmitted directly into the platter via the belt; the less compliant the belt, the more efficient it will be at transmitting noise from the motor and pulley.  If you ameliorate that issue by using a compliant belt, then you have more belt creep, leading to speed inconstancy.  The best virtue of a belt-drive: cheap to build.  

You can like whatever you like, but keep the facts straight.  IMO, the rim drive is the worst of both worlds, not the best of both.  Mechanical vibrational energy from the motor is transmitted right into the platter with no belt to isolate one from the other.  At the same time, the typical rubbery contact point between the drive wheel and the platter is constantly trying to rotate the motor in the opposite direction (per Newton's 3rd Law of Motion), and flaws in the O-ring result in mechanical noise and speed issues.

The big issue with DD turntables is simply electronic noise (EMI, especially) that could in theory be picked up by the phono cartridge due to the proximity between the two.  Most of the time, the platter itself is an efficient shield.  The other problem is motor cogging.  But BD and rim drive motors are not at all free of that problem, either, and the best DD turntables have motors of far higher quality than what you will find in most BDs.  Why I like coreless motor DD. 

Dear @fjn04 : As @lewm pointed out the first and main TT target/task that's that the LP runs steady exactly at the required rpm's with no speed fluctuations and as he said that can happens with any well designed TT does not matters its kind of drive. No, idler drive are no better thyan DD/BD on this critical regards.

Now, to make any single audio item comparisons first premise that we have to have is to have a real REFERENCE and for me the only valid true-REFERENCE is: " near field live MUSIC ". No, other audio systems are not valid for a reference.

The other premise we have to take in count is each one live MUSIC experiences that most be at least one time each 1-2 weeks.

Third premise is  ( I know lewm could be angry about. ) that the audio signal been not touched by a single tube that can't " honor " what's in the recording.

After that and if our TTs all achieve that " perfect " speed the main critical stages are: tonearm/cartridge combo matching, tonearm/cartridge/TT overall set-up and phonolinepreamp. But all system links are important as are our ears and preferences . Main system target must be " truer to the recording " and for that the system has to have very high resolution with a wide frequency range.

So could be a little futile making comparisons with out several main premises and a true REFERENCE to make those comparisons.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC and not DISTORTIONS,
R.