Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

Yes, the direct-drive school does seem to have two camps, high torque motor/light platter vs low torque motor/heavy platter. And yes I think the LO7D is more in the latter camp, certainly compared to Technics stuff. There is an analogy in belt drive turntables too. Notts and Walker (to name two of many) favor weak motor/gigantic platter. SME and (argghh I can't remember the name, begins with an "A") would be in the light platter/powerful motor school.

The only guy I know for sure who would understand this stuff and could explain it to us is Mark Kelly, but he is preoccupied with other things at the mo'.

Avid. That's the name I was trying to think of. Nice stuff. Light-ish platters/high torque motors.

Using a stethescope (is that sick or what?) I can hear a hum that sounds like the transformer to me: it only sounds when the power is on whether or not the platter is spinning. It makes me think about pulling the power supply out of the tt and moving it into a separate box. Has anyone done this? If there aren't many different feeds at perhaps different voltages then I would think it could be done without spending a fortune. Am I dreaming?

Hi Aigenga,
Strange you should mention stethoscope?........I just bought one last week and have been madly scouring all my shelf positions, motors, platters,,tonearm supports and plinth.
I have absolutely no motor hum whatsoever from the TT-101.....and that's placing the stethoscope on the metal motor surrounds, the aluminium control fascia and even the platter( with the motor on but the platter not spinning).
I'm surprised your Techi didn't check out the working performance after changing out the caps as you said there was noise in the bearings as well?
Something is amiss. Hope you find it?

Aigenga,
Does your TT-101 have the grounding cable attached to it?