Is Direct Drive Really Better?

Drubin,
You've hit upon a great idea. Talk about a crowd attraction. Denver is pretty central in terms of U.S. geography and RMAF in October would be a terrific site since it is likely that the principal competitors might all be there anyway. The only hangups would be classification and maybe ground rules.
Should we start a new thread for this topic or just keep going here? Obviously we would see older and probably reconditioned models for Idler Drive and no holds barred new stuff for belt. I imagine that it would be NOS DDs unless the Monaco might show up. Who are going to be the judges? Will it be a panel like in the Olympics where each judge holds up a card with their score and then we average them?
More comments and ideas, please.

Those coming to Denver will get to hear the exact same table, arm and cart with belt vs. direct drive. It's a simple matter with the new prototype to switch between belt and direct drive. But I hasten to add that this still will not mean much about the debate at hand. The motor and controller topology is completely different. So people will be hearing motor differences along with the belt vs direct differences. I suspect that in this case the motor/controller differences will have a larger impact than the drive method.

There seems to be a lot of religion about drive methods, but I see it as just a small part of the equation. The motor/controller design and characteristics are at least equally important. Rather than taking our direct drive development as an endorsement of the drive method it would be more accurate to say that we have developed a promising new motor and we are implementing it with direct drive. A suble but important difference.

And, that Denver trip is less than 10 days away! I'm salivating all over the keyboard just thinking about it!

Microjack, if you'll allow me an observation. I get the impression that your real motivation for starting this thread, and coming to some of the conclusions you seem to have, was to somehow justify doing what you wanted to do. Sell your current table and buy a table that you had your eye, or curiosity, on. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm much the same way. However, there is a pervasive theme through many of the well thought out posts here. That is, all of the popular drives have their benefits and short-comings, it still comes down to implementation of the whole table.

Personally, I'd be much more interested in a shoot out between your Druids and a few other well regarded speakers. Not trying to hi-jack the thread, but the Zu's do have my interest.

Teres: You *elected* to implement it with direct-drive. Why? Marketing (which I think may be a good move in a crowded BD universe), and/or something more?

PA: You lost me, I don't understand the meaning of your response to my wisecrack (which was only in reference to "watching women's palms" -- intended as a joke, though I'm guessing you're not joking about anything...)

Zaikes, if you think about for a minute, moving to DD for marketing reasons alone would be a huge gamble (some might say insane), to say the least, from a business point of view. I've worked for start-up companies for almost 12 years and I can assure you if you swim against too strong of a current you will drown quickly. Chris can certainly speak for himself, but based on everything I've heard about him I doubt there is anything short of a sincere desire to improve the current state of the art being offered from Teres. Healthy skepticism is a good thing, pessimism is another issue. Especially when it is expressed from a position of absolutely no first hand knowledge of the table in question. But you are entitled to your opinion. I'm not trying to throwing darts at you, maybe just spill a little beer on your foot. :) Where did the animal go?