In fact, Linn Sondek, VPI, Galibier, Teres, Amazon, Nottingham, Forsell, Rockport, Walker, Oracle, Sota, Origin, Verdier, Audiomeca, Thorens, Clearaudio, Rega, Kuzma, Michell, Roksan, and Wilson Benesch DO have it all wrong, a case of the usual orthodox dogma not being questioned and everyone blindly following without re-examination. Did ANY of these companies say "Gee, I think I'll try out a Garrard 301, and then a Technics SP10 MKII, to decide for myself which approach I should adopt"?, or did they say "Gee, even if they're better, the cost of manufacturing would be too high and the project too complex and intimidating"? or finally and most likely "Idler-wheel, direct-drive, say what?". The same happened with tubes long ago when solid state was deemed superior and tubes largely abandoned until, hey, someone actually decided to go back and listen and found it actually DOES sound good! Similarly, the world's "best" scholars for centuries believed the sun orbitted around the earth (thank you Ptolemy, you dunce), and those who claimed otherwise were threatened with incarceration, torture and death, which is why Galileo recanted despite the evidence of his telescope, while his peers the professors of Europe cheered the Church on. Centuries before Ptolemy, most cultures around at that time believed the earth orbitted around the sun (for instance the 7th-century BC Pythagoreans, who received their knowledge from the Egyptians before them), orthodox wisdom notwithstanding. So, to sum it up, the long list you provide is meaningless, simple argument by authority, one of the cardinal sins of scholarship (which should be ruled by logic and evidence), and only serves to prove the power of dogma and the willingness of the majority to not question. Though idler-wheels in fact had better rumble figures than the belt-drives of the time, we have been told for years belt-drives "won" because of rumble figures. Belt-drives are cheap to produce, same old story, allow larger profits, and yadda yadda yadda. Even the idler-wheel manufacturers saw the possibilities for increased profits from vastly lesser manufacturing costs (finely judged complex mechanics and massive motors vs rubber bands and tiny little VCR motors) and jumped on the belt-drive bandwagon, abandoning idler-wheel technology. Sometimes capitalism sucks, as today, with reality television dominating the airwaves, and damn that issue of "quality" and "integrity" anyway.
Of course, our fellow here can still get good sound, which is to say musical, from a carefully-chosen belt-drive, just not as good in many ways (or most, or all) as technologies which provide more stable speed (and thus better rhythm, and better bass, and...). And $2000 sounds like too much for me for a bottom line, but then I already prefer the sound of analogue to the sound of a computer chip. I think you could do very well for just a few hundred bucks, stretch it to $1000 including good tonearm, cartridge and phono stage. Since he does have a phono stage, then another underrated turntable - other than the Lenco ;-) - are the Aristons, specifically the RD11S (in the same league as an '80s-version Linn LP12), which is often for sale with excellent audiophile arm for only $300 or so. And the Technics SL1200 IS a current turntable, which with some tweaks will play excellent msic hassle-free for years. Of course, there's my favourite the Lenco (only if you absolutely MUST have $10,000+ of sound quality for only a few hundred bucks), for those with a hankerin' for DIY, and hankerin' to find out for themselves what all the hubbub about idler-wheel technology is about. Must end with the tried and true Rega turntables, elegant, simple, musical, plug'n'play.
