Is Direct Drive Really Better?

It’s not possible to rule out all the variables in this audition. Even assuming the Walker and GP with the EXACT same cartridge (my Koetsu Jade Platinum Signature), one of these tone arms may favor the Jade more or less than another.

Then, add in my personal taste as well as how my own system is tuned with my current Walker Proscenium as the reference.

I've always loved linear trackers, owned at least seven 'em. Of course everyone says the latest designs from Schroeder and Morch are supposed to give linear track a run for their money. Factor in cost and we have an impossible task.

I think the best I could do is explain what I hear in my system and let everyone decide if it means anything or not. What's important is we are all discussing how great analog is. I think that's more important than WHICH system work for each person.

Raul,
I'm in general agreement that measured numbers determine the accuracy, but I will take issue on one small nit-picky area.

Lumping of wow and flutter is misleading, because I suspect that the frequency distribution of the wow and flutter noise will have a very pronounced effect on the perception of sound quality, just as it does with digital jitter.

I could have a table that had lousy wow measurement at 0.5Hz, but I suspect it would be much more pleasant to listen to than a better measured table with wow around 2kHz, right in the midband.

I truly believe in measurements and a scientific approach to audio, but often the most difficult thing is knowing exactly what to measure.

This has been a really fascinating debate, by the way, and I hope one day I'll have the time and/or the money to try a few more of the tables out there.

Just a thought. How many YEARS passed before it was recognized that one side of Miles' "Kind of Blue" was recorded and released off-speed? When the second side, recorded at the right speed, was available for comparison all the time? So much for our sensitivity to speed accuracy.

Albert,
I think that's a tremendous observation. A lot of people bickering about a subset and we've perhaps forgotten that we are all talking because of our agreement on a larger point which is the benefits of analog. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

Upon mature reflection, I have to say that my last post is about as relevant as Raul's numbers :-)