Regarding string Drive - my experience with the final audio ( high mass/ac drive ) was a big improvement in stability going from cotton ( slippage and stretch ) to surgical silk.
I'd really like to get a version of this with no knot if possible as I believe the knot is the weakness - anyone got any suggestions.
I also aligned the position of the drive string to be at the bearing point ( this is an inverted bearing design ) - again this seemed to be an improvement.
With regard to torque - my experieicnes using the adjustabe torque on the speed controller of the final are that there is definitely an optimum - the sound is much smoother at the optimum point, ie I go for the highest torque until the sound goes off.
lastly a question for Dover, what do you think of someone dumping a Walker Black Diamond for a refurbished Technics SP10 MKII ?????
My view would be use the money leftover to buy a high mass rigid turntable as mentioned in the threads above.