Just out of curiosity, why are you limiting yourself to belt-driven tables? Direct drive vs belt drive is one of those classic audiophile debates, like digital vs vinyl, tubes vs solid state, planers vs cones... Clearly there are plenty of people on both sides of the fence.
Of the tables I mentioned above, only the Technics isn't belt-driven. And yet in my system it's the best sounding table. Go figure. Several years ago I used to wonder why a few people so passionately recommended their modded Technics turntables; now that I own one I have a better understanding.
You can have custom acrylic dust covers made for you by a plastics company. (Check the archives for suggestions.) I believe they cost something on the order of $50-80 when I was considering getting one made for my Pro-Ject RM6. The point being that the presence or absence of a dust cover doesn't necessarily matter, but you'll have extra cost getting one made for a table that doesn't come with one.
Michael
Of the tables I mentioned above, only the Technics isn't belt-driven. And yet in my system it's the best sounding table. Go figure. Several years ago I used to wonder why a few people so passionately recommended their modded Technics turntables; now that I own one I have a better understanding.
You can have custom acrylic dust covers made for you by a plastics company. (Check the archives for suggestions.) I believe they cost something on the order of $50-80 when I was considering getting one made for my Pro-Ject RM6. The point being that the presence or absence of a dust cover doesn't necessarily matter, but you'll have extra cost getting one made for a table that doesn't come with one.
Michael