Is idler drive better than belt drive or direct drive?

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

@oldhvymec  You can still get recording tape including cassettes- talk to the good folks at ATR.


If you get some Silica Gel packets and a plastic bag, throw in the packet when you store the tape in its bag in its box. It lasts a lot longer before you have to bake it!

If we modified a impact testing rig so the given edge of the moving or rotating platter could impact upon said impact gear, we could probably prove, via data obtained... that idler wheel is better than belt or direct drive.

I suspect that with only a truly massive platter in play -- does this advantage finally go away to some degree.

It’s an "instantaneous torque at any given point under a constantly varying dynamic transient load" issue.

Only the idler has it.