Direct Drive vs. Idler Drive vs. Belt drive

Chakster, it is really quite simple. Those Technics tables you like are beautifully made eye candy. For many individuals the visual experience overloads the audio experience. Same thing happens with arrows on wires. The problem is that next to something like a SOTA Cosmos with any decent arm on it those Technics tables sound like finger nails on a chalk board. As far as air bearings go they are a totally unnecessary complication. If you want to float the platter just use opposing magnets.
I think the Air Force 1 is a tour de force of complexity. Eye candy for sure. Sound better? I would bet if I put the same cartridge and arm on a SOTA Cosmos or an SME 30/12 nobody would be able to reliably tell them apart but when you look at them then of course the Air Force 1 wins.

They had a naked motor available for admiration, and so I picked it up, put it next to my ear, and I could hear the sleeve bearings when I twisted the spindle.

Once the motor is prepped for operation it might not do that. I pulled the motor out of my Technics as I am taking it to a machinist so I can run a longer spindle. Its really quiet!

The problem is that next to something like a SOTA Cosmos with any decent arm on it those Technics tables sound like finger nails on a chalk board

A friend of mine (Warren Ghel, currently at ARC) developed the platter pad used on the Cosmos. SOTA got an exclusive contract to use it. I ran a Cosmos for quite some time- and then discovered that a mildly modified Empire 208 equipped with the same arm (at the time, an SME5) as the Cosmos sounded better. With more mods to the Empire (a plinth machined of solid aluminum and damping the platter) the Cosmos simply had to leave. Since then I've gone to using the Triplanar and I've working on a number of Technics SL1200Gs and GAEs; IMO they are a better turntable than our model 208 (the production version of the modified Empire). Based on this I have trouble taking the statement in your quote seriously! The Technics machine is excellent; equipped with the right arm and platter pad its a formidable machine; I don't see how a Cosmos would compare. 

Mijostyn, If you have a recording of fingernails on a chalk board, any good Technics table will make it sound like fingernails on a chalk board.  But why do you want to listen to that?

@atmasphere 
Once the motor is prepped for operation it might not do that. I pulled the motor out of my Technics as I am taking it to a machinist so I can run a longer spindle. Its really quiet!

That had not occurred to me. Thank you! Good to hear, so to speak.

But I can't hear the sleeve bearings on my little Premotec either - not until it is connected to the platter by a belt, and then only through the playback amplification. So I think that sleeve bearings are a problem anywhere in the chain, and the closer to the platter the worse it is. What do you think?

@mijostyn , comparing my big Nottingham Analogue Mentor with improved plinth, motor, and motor controller (all to Dais standard), to my DIY air bearing, is indeed no contest. The air bearing is dramatically better. Same model tonearm (TransFi Terminator), same identical cartridge (Koetsu).