Good Direct Drives

lewm"Clearthink, You have swallowed hook, line, and sinker, the favored argument of those who prefer belt drive to direct drive or of those who make and sell only BD."

No you are woefully misinformed and mistaken the statement I made was based on many years of actual testing regarding the performance of direct drive turntables and this testing is easily verified by others who might be so inclined as to conduct they're own testing of direct drive turntables they're problem is that they are always OFF SPEED as can be shown by the sawtooth plot of their speed accuracy. The problem is they run too fast so the servo slows them down then they run too slow so the servo speeds them up then they run too fast so the servo slows them down and it goes on and on and on they are almost never on speed! or you can just rely on anecdotal reports and be perfectly happy that is also fine.

Clearthink,  I can only speak to what I’ve actually heard, so my data set is small but you speak about the hunting of servo controlled DD TT’s as a bad thing. I guess that would depend on the degree of the hunting . I have a VPI Prime with the roadrunner and eagle control which controls the speed to 3 decimal places, but the third decimal place is always hunting for stability as well, but I can’t hear the effect, so why should it matter if servo DD motors do the same as long as it can’t be noticeably perceived?  Is there even a such thing as a perfect speed TT - I wouldn’t think so. 

Also I grant you that the Prime isn’t the “end all” belt driven TT but it’s no slouch either and it was $4k, so would the Prime be considered a serious TT?

@clearthink As an example, several reviewers have found that the RP8 runs fast straight out of the factory. Rega does not correct the problem. Intentional?  

Clearthink:
There are a number tests of the Technics 1200 online.  I don't know of any that agree with your statement.

Here is one:
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2014/08/measurements-technics-sl-1200-m3d-wow.html

Personally, I have listened very closely to my 1200 and don't hear anything of the sort.  YMMV...