Why According to some Turntable extremists Pitch Control and Direct Drive is Sacrilege?

Thx Lewm

And yes my apologies for driving the Lenco posts.
All satisfied for now and off too Lenco Heaven I shall go!

Generalization and over zealous ownership biases. ....
Two of the absolute worst criteria to choose most audio, but especially turntables , and the arms and cartridges needed to complete the job.
Many think direct drive is the " only " choice for best of in a field with exceptional belt and idler drives when executed properly are preferred by many. If a direct drive sounds brittle to one persons ears and pleasing to another......it’s why we have choices for our own tastes, and not just for the zealots of one drive choice. They ALL, have strengths and inherent weekness’s and all are not equal in their own camps or against each other.
Direct drive and the claim of perfect pitch with all the faults some hear and others are bias blind to ignore , is just a preference. Like belt drives some more accurate than some realize and others that are not as accurate but have executed all other perameters to remove self noise. The .025 wow and flutter of a good direct drive , on the surface is impressive but it’s just one thing of many that harms playback. A good belt drive with .05 wow and flutter , as much as some direct drive and idler zealots scream, will be unoticed by most as a problem at all.
Thats about 16 thousands of an rpm off or .6 seconds off after an entire side. Some claim to hear it....I think they are full of it.
Belts can suffer the same with a power supply constantly adjusting apposed to minor corrections . Their is no one drive choice is better in my view. They all have brands/models that excell, and that suck ,both in performance and value (price).
Turntables and phono preamplifiers I think an open mind is better than a personal biased closed in narrow view of what OTHERS should like. We all hear differently and focus on different points of music, genres, frequency extremes etc...
What’s wrong with choice let alone mine over yours.....

  If a direct drive sounds brittle to one persons ears and pleasing to another......it’s why we have choices for our own tastes, and not just for the zealots of one drive choice.

Do you compare different turntables with the same tonearm/cartridge ?

 The .025 wow and flutter of a good direct drive , on the surface is impressive but it’s just one thing of many that harms playback. A good belt drive with .05 wow and flutter , as much as some direct drive and idler zealots scream, will be unoticed by most as a problem at all.

A good DD has lower wow and flutter:

0.015 Denon DP-80 and Technics SP-10 mkIII
0.02 Victor TT-101
0.025 Luxman PD-444 and new Technics SL1200GAE  

And don't forget that cutting lathe is Direct Drive too 

My "Alloy Convertible" turntable routinely measured .02 wow and flutter and platter rundown times of as much as 7 minutes, also dead quiet 

Bruce

@kps25sc 

I owned a Nakamichi TT for years, direct drive made as good as the Japanese could make them back then. Tried several arms, including a Forsell linear air bearing arm, it never sounded really good.

Which one? Probably The Dragon CT ?

Because their best and extremely rare today TX-1000 was probably made by Micro Seiki.