My personal experience with Direct Drive versus Belt Drive

"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.

Well, in general, a direct drive does have greater speed accuracy so you should expect the sound to be tighter and more accurate. Most of my LPs are classical, I hate the pitch instability of belt drives and what it does to piano recordings.  It happened even with a speed control box due to belt stretch..yuk.
I am sure there are plenty of very nicely designed belt drives that outperform plenty of DDs, I just don't think you can reach a general conclusion with a sample of 2! 

I make both - Belt Drives and Direct Drives and most definitely prefer Direct Drive - it reproduce music with an energy and pace that no belt drive have ever done in my system.   A simple test to do for all of you whom have belt drives that can accept more than one belt - VPI with the separate drive stations for an example - add 2 - 3 - 4 belts and the speed consistency increase along with the focus and energy / pace of the music.  DD have a vastly advantage over BD in speed consistency - any timeline test will confirm this and IMO speed stability is the number one job of a TT - yes everything else matters Platters / Mats / Clamps / Tonearm / Cartridge - the last three being variables on any table.  Listen to a well plinthed refurbished DD turntable be it a Technics or a Denon Vintage drive system and all this becomes clear 🎶 and yes I do make this variant along with the Belted ones 



Good Listening

Peter 

Speed stability is the number one job of a TT. For years I thought that too. But it proved to be wrong in my system(s). It´s just another theory, it´s an illusion. How the music flows is essential, and the starting point is the turntable itself. Extremely hard job to do, I have noticed over the years.
But I have made great progress.