Direct Drive vs. Idler Drive vs. Belt drive

In the past I would have dogmatically agreed that platter mass was a key point for good analog playback. I still think its a key contributor. 

However the Well Tempered Reference has shown me that is not a bit t Truth. I bet its platter does not weigh over 5 pounds, yet it has excellent sound quality, has solid speed stability, excellent bass response, and portrays space in a very believable manner. Is it the best table? No. But for its price point it was a very good table, and viable even in todays marketplace. It may not have a lot of techno wiz bang options, but it still gets to the heart of the music. Mass alone does not define SQ. 

obviously a belt drive tt uses the platter mass differently than a direct drive or idler. which we could write a book about.

but if you investigate the top performers of each drive type they all have relatively heavy platters; and you would find that within each drive type that performance differences would generally relate to platter and plinth mass. it’s not that simple.....but it sorta is.

inertia plays a big role in musical solidity and ease. for tape decks too when you observe solidity of the transports and the deck structure.

Turntables are holistic creatures, and placing a high level of importance in a specific design feature narrows our understanding of how things are ultimately sorted out in our analog playback systems.

Another interesting tidbit on patter mass comes to mind. When I bought my SP 10 MK II I was quite content with it. I came across a custom machined platter for it that weighed about twice the mass as the stock one, made of stainless steel as I recall. I ordered it and installed it. What I found is that the sound became smoother but was robbed of life. The table was fully capable of keeping accurate speed at the stock platter weight, and there was nothing of consequence to be gained from increasing it, matter of fact it was a step backwards. Perhaps platter mass does matter, but only within the context of what the designer envisions. The Well Tempered Reference indicates to me that platter mass has to reach a certain point for speed stability, and needs to be made of well damped and inert materials, but perhaps the critical level of mass needed is not as high as we would expect. But once again, its contained within the context of the designer envisions, and what that person works out to be the final balancing act.

I am a fellow of modest means, so I don’t play in the deep end of the pool. I have been fortunate to live with a variety of tables over the last ten years, which have included TD 124, 401, DP 75, SP 10 MK II, Rock MK III, and various VPI/Thoens/SOTA. But there are limits to my financial resources so I don’t comment on all at leading edge designs because that is not where I have any experience. My current tables are what my resources allow me to own. Currently have a SOTA Cosmos Eclipse with SME V and Transfiguration Proteus. Next table is the Brinkmann Bardo with Audiomods Series 6 and Ortofon A90. Final table is a Well Tempered Reference with Ikeda 9 Kawami. Nice tables at their price points, but they have their ceiling.

Resonance control is the name of the game. A table has two electro mechanical sources of energy, and two mechanical ones. Unwanted energy that makes it to the cartridge/record interface is noise and in a perfect world is shunted away. Motor vibration, bearing noise, uncontrolled resonance at the cartridge, and arm/bearing resonances in the tone arm, they all affect the signal being transferred from the vinyl to the phono stage. How the designer deals with it is what we hear, and I don’t know about you, but I certainly am not capable of passing judgement on each design characteristic that is made and assessing its contribution to the final product. At best I can have an opinion of what the overall sound is presented from the table, but nothing more of consequence. Bearing design, drive type, platter mass, arm design, plinth mass, isolation footers, suspension, power supply and so on, well I can have my opinions on what I think matters, but I really have no way of proving it to be true. So I would never make statements of fact in this is the way it is. Because I have no way of controlling all the variables in a comparison, and therefore can never really "prove" what I personally think is true. even just what I wrote above. Its just my observations and thoughts.

Another interesting tidbit on patter mass comes to mind. When I bought my SP 10 MK II I was quite content with it. I came across a custom machined platter for it that weighed about twice the mass as the stock one, made of stainless steel as I recall. I ordered it and installed it. What I found is that the sound became smoother but was robbed of life. The table was fully capable of keeping accurate speed at the stock platter weight, and there was nothing of consequence to be gained from increasing it, matter of fact it was a step backwards. Perhaps platter mass does matter, but only within the context of what the designer envisions.

Why you did that ? You could just add Micro Seiki CU-500 gunmetal mat on top (perfectly matched). Here is mine. The weight of CU-500 is 2.7kg and it's 5mm thickness. That was huge upgrade for my stock SP-10 mkII.

When you're using not original parts, but some overkill superheavy custom platter why do you expect improvement ?  Technics platter is already heavy. 

Why you did that ? You could just add Micro Seiki CU-500 gunmetal mat on top (perfectly matched). Here is mine. The weight of CU-500 is 2.7kg and it's 5mm thickness. That was huge upgrade for my stock SP-10 mkII.

When you're using not original parts, but some overkill superheavy custom platter why do you expect improvement ? Technics platter is already heavy.


Then why are you adding mass to the platter also? It is already designed to operate as the engineers at Technics intend it to, yet you feel you can improve upon that. 

This is no different than what I originally did, which followed the line of thought of increased platter mass would improve sound quality by less resonance and increased rotational stability. For me that was not the case, and I returned the item and gained a bit of knowledge/experience of what I prefer in turntable configurations. 

I am noticing something about you. It appears you are one of these people who believe that your choices are the only correct way to do things in this hobby. If others disagree with you or have a different perspective then they are misguided or ignorant. Audio is a journey and there are many pathways to take, and folks often have a different destination in mind and value a different perspective of what they get to hear and experience. Honestly, it would make my time here more enjoyable if you would refrain from interacting with me. Unfortunately this place does not have an ignore button.