Teres Audio Verus Direct Couples Motor, Anyone?

I think Agaffer is susggesting that the drag of the stylus will cause speed irregularities, but that's the whole point of idler and direct-drive; both technologies should (when properly implemented) be much more immune to stylus drag effects than belt drive. As far as "flat spots" on the O ring, I think that problem is way way over-stated. And I don't own a Teres table or a Verus motor; I do use a modernized Lenco direct-coupled to a heavy plinth. I do also respect Teres for taking the plunge.

I just upgraded my Teres #40 to Verus from Signature II. Will probably post more details later, but for now just comment on the O-ring thing. These things have an uneven casting seam that goes right around the outside and inside edges - exactly where you would not want something like this to be. So they are supposed to sand this off before shipping, and the owners manual describes how to diy if you ever need to replace yours.

As it turns out mine left Teres without having been sanded. One of the first things I did was to listen and feel for motor vibration, and noticed an obvious bump (dip, actually, it turned out to be) I could feel with my hand. Even at that it was apparent with music this motor is a nice upgrade from the Sig II. But it made a thump loud enough to hear between tracks and even during fade-outs.

Careful sanding removed most of this. Now if you feel carefully you can still feel the same bump is there, but much much less. Even so I would say overall vibration from Verus is much less than from the earlier motors. Certainly the motor sound coming directly from the motor is much less. I've cranked the volume up much louder than I ever listen to music and been unable to hear the bump, or any rumble at all.

Probably this is because the motor is so much less massive, and the table is suspensionless. I do believe vibration can be reduced quite a bit further with a better (more uniform) O-ring and more thorough precision sanding. Whether this improves the music remains to be seen.

For now I'm content to spin vinyl on it, continually amazed how much better everything sounds from "just" a motor.

Lewm,

If someone has positive results I'm happy for them. As I keep saying, this is a YMMV sort of component. The Verus will satisfy many listeners while failing to meet the needs of some.

Our Verus was not defective, at least not compared with other Verus's. Chris checked it out after we returned it with our report. The O-ring was smooth, seated properly and everything was operating as designed. He and others listened to it and heard no problems. They simply do not listen to music the same way we do.

The problems we heard do result from elements of the design. They are predictable in theory, though their sonic effects required listening to verify.

I actually posted my concern about the rubber elements back in July, weeks before we received the Verus. We were hoping not to hear any ill effects, but unfortunately we did.

A speed controller that relies on incremental steps instead of continuously variable adjustment risks having insufficient resolution. Steps of a certain size might be "small enough", or not, depending on the listener.

We have not heard any idler wheel tables so I could only speculate. FWIW, a friend who owns three Garrards and hears speed problems with nearly every belt drive hears no loss of dynamics or pacing on ours. It's all in the implementation.

"Holographic mylar" is a material sold by McCormick's, a company that supplies belt materials for Teres and Galibier DIYers. McCormick's is linked on both company's sites. Galibier has used this material for years and we've found it to be superior in performance to the 7 or 8 others we've tried.

Agaffer,

I'm glad the Verus produces accurate speed with your platter but that doesn't mean it will produce accurate speed with some other platter.

Those dip switches don't control the speed of the PLATTER, they control the speed of the MOTOR. With any rim drive the RPM's of the platter depend on its circumference. Do the math or do an experiment. Increase your platter circumference by putting a single layer of tape around it at O-ring height. Now check your speed again. I guarantee your RPM's will be different (slower).

My wood platter is not the same circumference as your acrylic one and no dip switch setting gave us a stable strobe pattern. It was either too fast or too slow. Our platter circumference needed an "in between" setting, which unfortunately does not exist. You get accurate speed with a setting that does exist, and that's good! :-)

Chuck911,

I agree the Verus motor is notably quieter than our Ref II/gold motor. That aspect of the Verus is clearly superior, great work by Chris. We'd love to try it implemented as a belt drive, which would eliminate one of the two issues we had.

Best to all for the holidays!
Doug

Thanks, Doug. As my singing teachers could tell you, I am NOT blessed with perfect pitch. I wonder how the Verus works with a Garrard 301. There are some who have gone that route. The Lenco idler wheel is covered in a very thin rubber-like material that is also not perfectly round. With the platter off the table, one can readily see that the imperfect shape of the idler wheel does result in a fine vibration when the wheel is riding on the motor shaft. Yet neither I nor anyone else I know of can hear any problems resulting from this fine vibration, though many end users have taken steps to minimize it. I am surprised that the bump in the Verus O-ring is so audible.

I've never seen a Verus in person, so I did not realize that the speed control is stepped, rather than continuous. This seems on the surface like a genuine but solvable problem (by Teres, not by end users).

I am surprised that the bump in the Verus O-ring is so audible.

Ours didn't have any bump. Unlike Chuck911's, our O-ring arrived sanded quite smooth and round. There was zero rumble in the dead wax or between tracks. It was just as quiet as our belt drive, which is dead quiet.

Given the Garrard reputation (again, I haven't heard) for rumble and a noisy motor I'd expect the Verus might often be a significant upgrade. Assuming a smooth O-ring it is very quiet. The motor itself is superb.

You're right about the stepped speed controller. It's fixable, but not by me!