Tables That Feature Bearing Friction


I recently had the opportunity to audition the DPS turntable which, unlike most tables, has a certain amount of friction designed into the bearing. This, when paired with a high quality/high torque motor, is said to allow for greater speed stability--sort of like shifting to a lower gear when driving down a steep hill and allowing the engine to provide some breaking effect and thus greater vehicular stability. I am intrigued by this idea and was wondering what other people thought about this design approach. Are there other tables which use this bearing principal? One concern I have is that by introducing friction you may also be introducing noise. Comments?
128x128dodgealum
Dear Teres, yes, I could grant your last post with some technical counterpoints and facts, but the only result will be argument.

But I can not resist.

****Thankfully, turntable design is not pure physics. A good design also includes compromises, tastes, experimentation and even some guesswork. Otherwise turntables would all look and sound the same. Really boring...*****

Well - turntable design is pure physics.
A turntable is a rotating machine.
That rtation has to be constant and its dynamic forces have to be that large that the extraction of the modulation by the tonearm/cartridge system have no side-effect on the constant rotation.
Furthermore the whole machine has to be suspended from building resonance.
Period.
Would you argue about a wheel and its function??

Stylus drag is a very small sliding force in constant motion and is - coupled with any serious platter (of course not if the LP lays just on the platter and is not firmly clamped down) - really neglectable. Its a force smaller by several magnitudes compared to the energy the stylus puts into the platter while modulating the groove information. A force smaller by several magnitudes compared to any motor generated vibration.

It is not a magic stone nor does it inhibit mystery unknown physical energy which puts it outside the Einstein Continuum ( however - many audiophile seem to believe just this and are supported by commercial audio advertising....).
The fact that "taste, compromises, experimentation and even some guesswork" is included in the design of turntables is the reason why almost all turntables do indeed "sound" different and most do sound pretty boring.
If the NASA had handled the Apollo - Mission that way, man would have never set his foot on the moon.

I have yet to see a turntable design done right.
I have yet to see a turntable with written standard specifications to start with.
So far we have a few good amateurs, but no professional anywhere.
Hey Dertonarm! Show us how it should be done right. Let's have a spec review.
Hey Dan_ed, really ? I expected my post would provoke something like this. After all nobody likes big mouth with no proof behind...........
Any other Agoner interested in this ?
Specs including given reasons - or plain specs ?
Including material selection?
If some interest for this I will gladly unfold a brief but detailed enough "roadmap".
Let me know your mind.
On the other hand this is far going beyond the original thread about the bearing friction.
Maybe we should start a new thread ??
Absolutely. Start another thread on TT spec review, or something like that and let's see where the discussion goes.
I'll second the motion for some discussion on these topics . . . regardless of where we stand as individuals, the enthusiast audio industry these days is very much threateaned by the stagnation of ideas, and open discussions are an excellent way to combat it (or each other:)).