New Teres Direct Drive Motor Available as Option

Well, Willster. It's like this. Many of us have first hand experience with the high level of quality of Chris Brady's work. So, when Chris tells folks that he's developed something worth listening to many of us tend to take notice.

I can understand your questioning, but you are speaking from a position of having no knowledge of the direct drive controller that Teres has developed or even of how Teres tables sound. Many of us are using tonearms and cartridges that are several times more that the cost of this new drive unit. I guess it's all relative.

Wrt the Verus, I think "try it" means exactly that - try it in your system. Most of those interested are Teres owners for whom the Verus is available for a trial period and as an upgrade at a different price than a new motor only purchase. Whether on the inside of the platter or the outside of the platter, whether the friction comes from a mechanism or from gravity, the architecture seems basically the same, compared to, say, a belt drive.

Willster, I do agree one cannot fully appreciate the quality and value of Teres tables by looking at their website.

Tim

Dan_ed, thanks for your comments but you are not quite correct. I don't own a Teres but that doesn't mean I don't have any experience with their products. A close friend has been using their gear for years and I've listened numerous times. He decided to build his own plinth for his Teres and when he dis-assembled his setup he found that the platter bearing was already very worn and noisy and he replace it with something a local machinist came up with. The new bearing was much superior. This kind of begged the question as to whether Chris Brady's judgment was always infallible.

Your comment about Chris telling folks that he has something new worth listening to speaks directly to what I was getting at. Several on this thread have implied that they are considering buying this motor without doing what you just suggested, i.e. listening to it first.

Also, if I read between the lines, you seem to imply that perhaps I don't have experience with top notch gear. This is not the case. My reaction was more based on my original impression of the Teres gear being presented as a way to get top performance without paying supertable prices because of the diy aspect, yet Teres tables and parts just seem to be getting more and more expensive.

Of course, as always, you spend your own money anyway you see fit. What is it about a stand alone motor of this type that would cause it to cost over $1600? I've spent considerably more on many things in my system, but not without a listen first.

Concerning the 'Verus', any thoughts about what it's use will do to the finish, and more long term, the wood itself, of the platter?

I.e., a rim drive system engineered from the ground up would probably dictate a ring of another, more friction-tolerant material, built into the platter . Aluminum. Steel. PVC. Etc.

To be clear we have a no time limit full refund policy so trying out a Verus motor is a low risk proposition. We are encouraging Teres customers to keep their existing motor for a week or two so that they can do side by side comparisons.

The Verus motor came from our attempt to make our Certus direct drive technology available at a more reasonable price. After careful evaluation we decided that a lower cost direct drive implementation would be too compromised and didn't make sense. We think that the direct coupled topology is the next best option to direct drive and can be implemented for a fraction of the cost.

Wilster, we sell components to DIY'ers but we don't sell kits of any kind. So it's interesting that you consider Teres turntables to be DIY and therefor expect lower pricing. We are a manufacturer with overhead and expenses and are in business to make a profit. Because we sell direct we are able to operate with lower profit margins and can offer correspondingly lower prices. But this has nothing to do with DIY. The downside is that as you pointed out most buyers are not able hear our products before purchasing. So as a generalization buying direct saves the buyer money but at the same time the risk is a bit higher. There's no free lunch...

Chris