Is idler drive better than belt drive or direct drive?

I’ll tell you OP, Reel To Reel is cool, no doubt.

I had an Akai RtoR that had direct record/playback wired from the heads to a really good Summo analog differential preamp and power amp. Went completely around the preamp in the tape unit. It was a masterpiece, for playback. That was stolen with a Fairchild 750, C22, 2, MC240., oh yea, that was a bad day, night, week, month, and year. :-)

Reel-to-Reel is really good, the problem NOW, is cost, and quality of the existing tape left. Magnetic media, degrades.. No way around it... Sure sound and LOOKS good... Fun, too!

Regards

Oldhvymec, There is LOADS of low frequency "noise" on vinyl that has nothing to do with the music. I have several recently pressed records that were obviously done on a poorly maintained lathe as the records have some of the worse rumble I have ever heard. The first time this happened I though my bearing went bad. 
Many subwoofer systems start rolling off at 30-35 hz by 18 Hz they are perhaps 6 dB down and that is only one octave. My system also doubles for theater work and there is loads of bass down there. Just watch Ford vs Ferrari. 
Rumble can be very low down as are surface irregularities on the vinyl. I use a digital high pass filter that rolls off at 100 dB/oct starting at 18 Hz.
If I defeat it the woofers will start flapping from just vinyl irregularities wasting power and taking the subwoofer drivers out of the linear part of their excursion causing distortion. Remember you have a resonance frequency between 8 and 12 Hz if you set up your tonearm correctly so these frequencies are amplified. Unfortunately, Records are not perfectly flat. You will see woofer movement in any system plating vinyl usually fairly mild as most system do not do much below 30 Hz although there are plenty of threads about flapping woofers. With modern subwoofers, amplifiers that go right down to DC and room control this can become a huge problem. Most Room control units, at least the ones I am familiar with allow you to design filters which if you play vinyl is for all intents and purposes mandatory. 

A very informative and interesting YouTube can be pulled up by:
“Garrard 301 vs Studer reel to reel”. Not only is this one of the best sound quality MP4s I have heard, it is a great comparison. When he changes from TT to Tape, you don’t want him to go back to TT!

Well, I went there.
Sound quality is low fi at best, even allowing for MP4.
No low bass, mid bass so diffuse, sounded like it had a six pack of love handles.
Reel to reel was more tonally accurate, but surprisingly 301 did have some areas in the upper mid where there was more information, albeit somewhat coloured.
For the price of the system - garbage.

If the LP was not a direct to disk then this is very easy to see. Of course a lot depends on what was used for playback of the LP in the example.

Yep, no mention of cartridge.
SME arm is so so, mid fi at best. You can hear the upper mid saturation endemic in those arms if you know them.
I demoed some thirty year old MIT 330/750 Shotgun to a guy with Tellurium Q Diamond all through his system - the Tellurium Q ( over $10k ) never went back in again. The Tellurium Q Diamond was significantly down in resolution compared to the 30 yr old basic MIT.

Chord electronics - mid fi at best.

Pretty underwhelming demo really. Sad advertisement for hi end audio.

By the way - tapes have massive droppoff in high frequency over time, not to mention bleed through ( from layer to layer ). I used to import Reference recordings - talk to Keith Johnson about tape quality, there is no decent tape made any more since the 60's.
At least the vinyl is more robust in maintaining performance over a longer period of time, provided you are not ham fisted and habitually abuse your records.

And of course, if you dont like a record they make great placemats or frisbees - yep, vinyl records were into recycling long before the greenies arrived.

By the way - tapes have massive droppoff in high frequency over time, not to mention bleed through ( from layer to layer ). I used to import Reference recordings - talk to Keith Johnson about tape quality, there is no decent tape made any more since the 60's.

If tape is properly cared for the highs will hold up just fine. Regarding the tape quality thing, what Keith was talking about is tape shedding. Tapes made on acetate don't shed much and so they store better than tape made on polyester. That change happened in the late 1960s. But if polyester based tape is stored properly (low humidity) then it won't shed. By baking a polyester tape at the right temperature you can reduce shedding dramatically. But beyond that, tape made today dramatically outperforms any tape made in the 1960s or before!

That was the problem, I was having. Keeping up with good tape, having to purchase it NOW.. oh yea, it was abandoned, by me over 30 years ago just for that reason. Limited supply and a LOT of the newer stuff wasn't holding up very well, to boot. I sure like some of the features though.

Cassette, then 4 track, then 8 track, then cassette finally took off, yet all that time vinyl was still being used by most serious stereo guys. Tape was a changing format, and not for the better. Reel to Reel, new production is VERY expensive, I've only seen custom request tapes, figure the cost on those. 500-1000.00 usd

Regards