Is Direct Drive Really Better?

That's the 2 mil mylar belt, which is a close second best of all the ones I've tried.

Dan may remember seeing a holographic silver belt on our table. It out-torques the 2 mil clear one by a small but audible margin, not because of the color (presumably) but because it's about 10% thicker. This seems to be the optimum material for this application. When I went up to 3 mil mylar the sound started going fat and soft again. That belt was too stiff to make the sharp turn around the motor capstan without slipping.

At any rate, that clear belt is quite good. This makes your report on the superiority of the DD table even more convincing.

My son, who was with me at the Teres show, said the 380 had more pluck. I guess that more or less sums what Dan_Ed was saying about the difference.
Dan, where you wrote IMHO above, Does that mean "in my humiliated opinion"?

I find myself wondering where something like a Technics SP-10 would fit into that hierarchy. It has the torque but not the platter mass of 380. Would it outperform a 320? If not, why not?

Good one, Tom! :) A good question as well. I suspect that the SP-10 would have better tempo but perhaps not quite the dynamics. That's just my humiliated guess. (Really wish I hadn't missed the Druids!)

Interesting stuff, I hope Teres comments on it. My own question at this point would be, what proportional contribution can we ascribe to the control system implemented on the DD, beyond the mere fact of the drive method itself? My own hunch is that this is where the greatest theoretical advantage of DD may lie, in affording the possibility of precision-designed platter control...

BTW, in response to two points raised above: I suspect resonance is probably still somewhat more sonically determinative than speed distortions in modern high end designs; and when Twl writes:

"I think it is because turntable designers all have varying degrees of understanding of the entire turntable system, and place varying amounts of emphasis on "perfecting" the various aspects, within a certain price range, and possibly with different technologies and approaches.

It is definitely not a foregone conclusion that just because a company makes turntables, that they are "expert" in the field. And even "experts" have holes in their knowledge base. And even if they do know everything(impossible), they cannot implement perfection, or even close to it at any affordable price range.

So, what you buy is inherently a compromise.
What types of compromising, and how well the compromises work as a whole, will determine the results"

that about says it all, and if anything may be understating the case. With the proliferation of TT's these days, and especially moderate-to-mid-cost ones, my guess is that plenty are not really comprehensively "designed" at all, just aesthetically pleasing combinations of common elements, made and marketed to price points with full knowledge that they will never be technically scrutinized by the audio media, only subjectively compared to similar offerings.

Dan, I don't want to steer this thread toward Zu so I'll email you privately about that.
That comparison is intriguing to consider given that in the day of the SP-10 there really wasn't an arm or cartridge like Chris used and isolation and cabling hadn't really even gotten started. Just how close can you get to a 380 using an older DD and modern ancillaries? I bet the performance difference is a fraction of the price difference.