Boy, lots going on in just a few days!! I've been off-line over the weekend enjoying the last "summer" weekend (temperatures in the mid-twenties Celsius when they are ordinarily 10 degrees cooler), hiking the provincial parks and watching the amazing Perseid meteor shower (we're talking fire-balls with smoke trails).
BIG Kudos to Teres for so bravely turning their backs on the belt. As my Vintage Guru would say, FINALLY, the industry is waking up, the charge led by Teres! I confess I never thought I'd see the day when the War for the Idler-Wheel/Wheel/against the Belt would actually lead to a change in the industry, so I'm caught entirely by surprise, having adjusted to eternally being consigned to a rebellious fringe element.
That said, Teres is a commercial company, and it's wise to take pronouncements with a grain of salt, and to separate advertising from truth and facts. I refer here to the following lines: "An idler setup suffers from cogging effects but to my ears it's a better compromise than the smearing you get from the greatly increased isolation resulting from a belt. But it is a still a compromise." Now, there is a LARGE difference between a large idler-wheel drive simply bolted to a plinth, and one which has been Direct Coupled to a large high-mass plinth. Furthermore, as I am all too aware of right now (working on a bunch of TD-124s by coincidence), rubber mushrooms, rubber gaskets and so on act like springs (not to mention actual springs), allowing the very powerful motors in these old idlers to actually move the 'table, leading to the claimed speed instabilities and cloudiness.
Now Direct Coupling to a giant plinth not only improves speed stability, but it also drastically reduces noise, drawing away and eliminating everything from the 'table's own noises (motor included of course) to simple surface noise. I would love to hear the effect of the Verus motor on a Giant Direct Coupled Garrard, perhaps one will show up in my area. Looking more specifically at the motors, these old induction motors are brushless like the Verus, and are essentially cogless, once one gets rid of the suspension which amplifies various motor energies, as they spin at an average 1500-1800 RPM, eliminating/smoothing out their own speed imperfections. Being coupled securely via a rubber wheel rather than a belt, the platters themselves act as flywheels to the motors (this design philosophy being expressed most of all on the Lencos), regulating and smoothing out speed imperfections in purely analogue fashion with no need for electronics. The trick is Direct Coupling to a Giant plinth.
Finally, there is more to this whole issue than mere silence, there is the issue of the amount of torque. These old idlers have MASSIVE torque, and the question is: does the Verus provide an across-the-board improvement with no sacrifices in transient speed (a function of torque as well as speed stability), dynamics (ditto) and bass reach, SLAM and detail? I am especially aware of this facet of idler design, as European Lenco motors do function in NA (but not the reverse) and are actually quieter than the NA variety (can hold it in your hand and feel/hear nothing). But their torque is significantly less, as is the SLAM, transient speed and PRaT. So, how much of the perceived improvement to the Garrards is simple silence (addressed by Direct Coupling to a Giant plinth) and “smoothness”, with PraT, SLAM and transient speed being ignored; and how much is across-the-board improvement? I hope to hear a Verus soon, and perform yet more experiments!! Be very interesting to see how the horizontal orientation of the motor works out if a Lenco version is released. FINALLY, the Lenco gets some serious consideration, and thanks for that!
Hi Lew, I found the article on the Garrard 501, and the main improvement is indeed to the motor, which, given the current discussion, is crucial and fundamental. If the magnetic cushion removes the noise while retaining the torque, then this indeed is a very large step. Loricraft have also resorted to electronics to further control motor speed, who knows how much this contributes? I'd love to hear one of these as well.
On the issue of direct drives, it is well-known what I think of quartz-locking and how this too leads to a form of audible cogging (dryness and dynamic constriction): I find the servo-controlled variety thus much more musical and fluid. The Sony 2250 has an absolutely superb main bearing (makes me think of the Roksan’s superb bearing), and extracts astonishing amounts of information (this tested with a smaller plinth, simply bolted). So I will be rebuilding this into a Giant Plinth and going the Direct Coupling route, and testing out a power conditioner to see how this affects the servo-controlled speed stability.
Have fun all, WHAT developments, and thanks again to Teres/Chris for waking up (as my guru would put it), smelling the roses, and stepping forward, and most of all for joining us on our journey here on Da Thread and posting!!!
