Is Direct Drive Really Better?

"62 Hz, 89 rpm, 16%. WOW!" LOL!

But: "The existing stock of affordable DD tables is small and stable and the concensus here says that mass produced DD will never again be seen."

The stock of new SL-1200's is virtually unlimited and will be mass-produced seemingly forever.

Yet to be addressed is the subject of quartz lock. Quartz is an alchemist's dream come true. Quartz has no comparison to a wobbling belt nor the brute force exercised by an idler wheel rubbing against a platter.

Quartz *resonates* electrically, giving timing and life to both man and machine. Quartz is a source of true metaphysical finesse wherever it's used.

If any of you guys would meet me in person and looked at the palms of my hands you'd understand. They are completely red from using a huge white quartz crystal for meditation and meridian resonance stabilization. My life force is distributed and timed with the help of quartz.

Has anyone seen those little quartz plum bobs sold at incence stores? I can place the center of my palm directly under the plumb and as I concentrate the plumb rotates faster and faster in ever increasing circles.

Now think about turntables...

With psychic power and primal intensity,

"If any of you guys would meet me in person and looked at the palms of my hands you'd understand"

Uh, that's OK, thanks anyway...

But getting back to the subject at "hand" (ahem), as far as I know there's nothing about implementing a quartz-referenced PLL that couldn't be done in turntables using something other than direct-drive, if one wanted or needed to.

It's not the "quartz-locking" timing reference that creates any problems in turntables.
It's the corrections that happen when the platter speed is determined to need "correcting".

Rhe method of "correcting" the speed requires alot of thought and engineering expertise. If corrections are done quickly, and using a light platter, then "flutter" occurs during the speed changes, as it tries to return the platter to proper speed. If corrections are done slowly, then it would be "wow" that occurs.

Certainly, there's nothing wrong with using the quartz-clocking mechanism for checking the platter speed as a reference.

Regarding quick speed changes with a light platter, as it regards stylus drag problems, often the heavily modulated passages which cause the stylus drag are relatively quick, and are over by the time the speed-control mechanism detects and make changes to compensate. This causes overcompensation, and then when this overcompensation is detected as too much speed, then it has to slow it down again. This is known as "hunting". Generally perceived as "flutter".

Regarding slow speed changes with a heavy platter, as it regards stylus drag problems, the inertia of the platter is great enough that it makes rapid speed changes impractical or impossible, so that most any changes needed to be made by the speed control must be slow, causing "wow".

So, it's not really the method of detecting the speed variations that are at issue, and many types of speed-monitoring technologies will work for this. It is how the engineer decides to go about the speed corrections that will make the difference of how we hear what happens when it is done.