I posted in haste before and did not get my point across. I love the joking as much as anyone and don't mean to sound like a curmudgeon.
"I'm going to conclude from this meager participation that direct drive is a better performer than belt and few people are aware of the fact."
This seems more like a statement of what had already been accepted by Macrojack as fact. Since he is so quick to come to this conclusion I'm getting a sense that the point of starting this thread is something of fishing expedition, otherwise known as trolling. I'll stick with my original thoughts. That is, there trade-offs with all 'table designs. None is inherently better than the others, but the proof is in the implementation. There are good and bad examples of DD, idler, belt-drive, suspended, non-suspended, etc., and to dismiss all others for the sake of a chosen "golden" theory is short sighted, IMO. Kind of like the debate about whether or not digital is worth doing.