Direct Drive vs. Idler Drive vs. Belt drive

rauliruegas

This what Mike posted:
"when we consider belts, idlers, and direct drive........2 of those have the choice of no servo’s."

Not true. There are belt-drive 'tables with servo control, such as the Oracle Delphi III that I once owned. Some SOTAs too, I think.

"Have the choice of." I did not say all belt drives are not servo controlled.
A synchronous motor will fight to follow the frequency it is given. As long as this is accurate the synchronous motor will stay right on unless it's torque rating is overrun which under normal usage is highly unlikely.
With the Sotas excepting the Cosmos and Millennium you have the choice. They come standard with a synchronous motor and synthesized power. I would not add the Eclipse package. IMHO it is a waste of money. Spend it on a better cartridge.  

Dear @cleeds  : @mikelavigne  was refering to the BD/ID model TTs he owns today: Saskia and Csport against the excellent DD @jtinn  NVS Refrence TT he owns too.

I really don't know the kind of motors that uses the Saskia and Csport units.

R.

The Saskia is driven from a very complex motor controller that probably synthesizes the AC supplied to the motor, designed and built by Mark Kelly for the Saskia. Mark probably also had a hand in selecting the type of motor (AC synchronous, etc) to be driven by his controller. Maybe Win Tinnon will chime in here.

Mijostyn, I wouldn’t be so sure about the value of adding the Eclipse system to a modern day SOTA turntable, unless I had heard an example both ways, playing music with and without the Eclipse. Have you done that? If not, maybe you shouldn't dismiss the Eclipse system so peremptorily. I don’t know how good is the base motor and power supply, so I too cannot say for sure that the Eclipse would improve SQ over the base PS and motor, but I do know that the Phoenix Eagle/Roadrunner system was a very worthwhile addition to my highly modified Lenco, which was beforehand being driven from an expensive "motor controller". The original motor controller was way better than AC from the wall, and the Eagle/Roadrunner was another step up from that. (If you don’t know, the Eagle/Roadrunner form the basis for the Eclipse system as licensed by SOTA, except SOTA add their own special motor to that package.)

neither the Saskia or CS port have servo controllers for their motors.

the Saskia does have an optical reader installed on the plinth in the platter well to allow for a feedback servo to be installed later for that feedback should that be preferred. Win has told me that he has no plans to do that.

obviously both my Wave Kinetics direct drive NVS and my direct drive EMT 948 have servos.

i view both the Saskia and CS Port as having the most steady tonal solidity of any turntable i have heard. the NVS and EMT are also very fine at that 'steady' and 'solid' type sound. only that the Saskia and CS Port are degrees more grainless and liquid, as well and greater tonal shading and density.