Turntable upgrade recommendations: SME vs AMG vs Technics vs other

SME (suspension), AMG (mass), and Technics (direct drive).
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of turntables, and of those in particular?

Aside from listening, which is most important, Paul Miller’s lab results from HiFi News & Record Review’s summary of SME’s newest Model 60 say a lot.

It comes up Aces in terms of pitch stability (“the most pitch-stable belt-driven deck we have tested”) with bearing performance from platter and tonearm that push the limits of measurement along with a new tonearm tube that is the subject of another thread of “What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?” that PM describes as, “The freedom from more complex resonances, and general clutter, is quite remarkable”

https://www.hifinews.com/content/sme-model-60series-va-turntable-lab-report

It’s an amazing achievement.

says someone above, and I quote, "Technics, not even close!" REALLY?? NOT EVEN CLOSE?? Do you have some kind of bionic ears?

How much ya wanna bet this guy, ALL-IN, has less than $10k invested in his entire system. No one who is ’audiophile proficient’ would ever make such a glaringly superfluous statement, except maybe a stoner whose primary measure of a great system is 1) volume knob going to 11 and 2) bloated bass, in the quality (and quantity) of a Saturday night in downtown Detroit.

@jymc I guess you're a Technics owner?

And I wouldn't make any bets on the amounts any poster here has invested over the years in their systems. It's probably a case of "think of a number and then increase by an order of magnitude"!

What is it that you object to so strenuously? The flippancy or the content of the opinion expressed by arcticdeth, 17 months ago? (Addressed to jymc, not dogberry.)

dogberry

Nope, would NEVER consider a Technics in my rig.