Teres, redpoint or galibier turntable

And, there's no noise at all from the tape drive transmitted through the platter.

Perhaps that is the case, but I've certainly heard a tape splice go round the pulley. I don't have an engineering background - how would that splice 'thump' get transmitted to be audible?

Tim

As Thom says, stainless steel is way up over the past few years and aluminum is following suit - aluminum ingots are up 50% since 2004 and stainless steel is up more than 100%. Kind of surprised by the PVC price jump but small lot buyers can get squeezed by any number of things (example: shipping costs are well over double what they were a couple of years ago).

Thom, non illigitamus carborundum.

Tim, that can happen if the splice is not done correctly. I've heard it myself when a splice began to separate after more than a year of use. When the splice is right there is no thump at all. There is certainly no motor noise transmitted to the platter.

I'm not saying all rim drives are noisy, but that type of drive is susceptible to it even when everything is working as designed.

No tape splice noise here either. If it's done correctly, which ain't too difficult, it's a non-issue.