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?
dodgealum
There are some little " things " that can help if we take it like " standards ".
If we take the phono cartridge like an example we could ask for: same horizontal distance between stylus and center cartridge mount holes, this simple " standard " could permit to mount the cartridge and forget about overhang ( with different cartridges ) because the tonearm manufacturers with that distance " standard " their tonearm headshell holes ( no slots. ) will comes at exactly the right position to set up in automatic way the overhang in any cartridge, this seems to me a " friendly " standard.

Other could be that the cartridge connection pins always be at the same position in relation to left/right ,+/- . One more that the stylus angle always be at the same angle, example: 20 degrees, not 17 or 23 degrees.

We can/ould take each audio item and think ( analize its relationship with the others. ) on " simple " things that can/could help in many ways.
It can help for example that the CDP's comes with the same output level.

It could help too if the tonearm arm board shape be the same/similar for all pivot tonearms.
For the people that own more than one TT ( different ones )it could help that the height position of the arm board in relation with the top of the platter will be a " standard " height.

T-bone " touch " the impedance subject that is very important and exist other" technical " areas where is important to fix standards. Btw, I think that all kind on " ideas " are welcome on the " standards " subject.

I think that are many subjects/factors where we can fix/define " standards " that will be help to anyone it does not matters what we customers/manufacturers have on " mind "/attitude: the " standards " serve to help to the whole audio industry, we are part of that audio industry.

The main subject is not only to make things more easy/friendly but to obtain better audio system each link synergy in favor of better quality performance.

With that kind of minimum " standards " the off-center record hole cancer will disappear and all of us will be really " happy " on it and we don't need to think in a mechanism to fix it.

IMHO there is no reasons why everything has to be so complicated when/where this complexity goes almost always against the quality performance of our home system reproduction.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Dear T_bone, I totally agree with Syntax and you. For the love of music - we do not need high end gear at all to appreciate music.
Beethoven string quartet op 132 will have its impact via an MP3 player or the car stereo as well as via a million dollar high-end set-up.
High-end is a nice playground to satisfy the longing of man for something absolute and gives us a microcosmos where each and everyone can produce his/(seldom...) her own dogma of something "best" in every subjective way possible. Today high-end is sold not only via sound - it is sold much more via the price tag (ask any high-end dealer in HongKong or some of the manufacturers of rather elusive components that they do not sell less when the lift up the price, but more) and the image related to it.
This is a very strange part of the luxury market.
Its not about quality - its about image, "face" and "show off".

All we need to simplify high-end is adapting some of the standards from the professional audio segment or PA. Matching impedance (600 Ohms for instance..) would make most super high-end cables and their effect null and void. But honestly - none of you would like to listen to a speaker with flat frequency response curve ..........

Flat impedance curve and easy load would eliminate in one moment 85% of all high-end speakers. Expect low power consumption and the next 10% will be gone for good.

We should accept High-end audio the way it is - a childrens playground.

The difference between the boys and the men??
The price tag on the toys.
Nothing else.
It is a nicer challenge to build a wonderful sounding system with a minimal budjet than buying the most expensive items. I learned alot with the Lenco threads, the MM/ MC thread , Quad 57 thread to apreciate the "downgrading" pathway , maybe I find my "kid" pleasure again !
This is the sign of a BAD design Bearing Friction a good table should have very very little.
To fix standards on the audio industry can help to the " new " people in our high-end world while they achieve experience with.

That " standards " does not have to be " extremes " one but only at " minimum ", so the toy-play will be " respected ". The record perfect-center hole can't go against almost no one but persons that can say: " hey I want to fix it ( toy-play ) please leave in that way... ".
The whole idea on the standards subject is for more positive, serious and open mind in favor of our hobby.

Other desirable subject on the high-end industry could be " quality standards " where an audio item/device must pass some test steps where it show that meets ( or not ) those " quality standards " and when achieve it then that audio item will show a official certification about, something like the ISO standards. This could help that we can buy better products with better quality and stop to find out that " three " days from the day we buy and audio item it has some failure: this happen every day even products that goes to a reviewer comes with defects in its operation.

IMHO if we want to be better ( overall ) we have to ask for be better, don't you think?

Oh yes we can enjoy music through a walkman either, but this is not the issue.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.