Turntable speed accuracy

Can anyone name one brand that is not Japanese, not German, and not Swiss origin that made direct-drive turntables in the 70's, 80's, and 90's before the Rockport Sirius III, which was reviewed in Stereophile in 2000? I certainly cannot think of one. So for 3 decades in the USA and UK that were dominated by Linn, there was no manufacturer making DD tables. Are audiophiles really that monogamous? That statistic is frightening, considering the two audio powerhouses in the world did not make a single direct-drive turntable in the heydays of analog!

Click here for some direct-drive history and brands.

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Dear Nikola, Without saying unkind words about his products that have been sold in the US, I just cannot put Lurne' in the pantheon of great tt designers. Perhaps he marketed some tt's exclusively in Europe that were exceptional.

For the past 20 years, the fashion has heavily favored belt-drive, thanks to Ivor Tiefenbrun and the Linn LP12 and complicit audio reviewers. Only a brave man would have introduced a new direct-drive turntable in the 90s and early 21st century, after the technology had been denigrated for so many years. Plus, and we have been over this ad nauseam, it is much more expensive and technologically challenging to build a new sota direct-drive than it is to do a new belt-drive. Now we finally have a few, in the form first of the Rockport Sirius (a real pioneer product, IMO) and then of the GP Monaco, Brinkmanns, NVS, and Teres Certus. But these are all very expensive and therefore rare.

Dover, FWIW, the motor in the SP10 Mk3 is NOT identical to the cutting lathe motor also made by Technics and used by many in the manufacture of LPs. That one has even much more torque than the Mk3 motor. The Mk3 motor and its drive system were explicitly designed for LP playback.

Dear Lew, I know your opinion about Lurne for some time but
Goldmund thought obviously otherwise when they hired him
as a TT designer. I am not sure if he designed the Goldmund
Reference but well that he designed the Studio which is
a DD kind and also the F3 linear arm. The DD motor was not a problem in Europe . He used the Papst motor first and JVC latter. He is still in business btw.As you also know Dual produced two very interesting DD motors but sold many more belt drives. Dual is now back in buseness but they don't produce any DD turntables at present. The reason is probable the pessimistic market expectation.
However I also mentioned Kuzma, Driessen and Yorke but you
obviously prefered not to comment on them. Considering the
prices for their TT's one can hardly argue that the production cost is the reason for their avoidance of DD kind.

Regards,

I respect the work of Kuzma, Driessen, and Yorke, from a distance. I only say what I say about Lurne' because of my experience with his earliest Audiomeca product. And my opinion should really mean nothing. As I once told you, were I to be in the market for a belt-drive type turntable, the Kuzma Reference, a la chez Nandric, would be my choice.

Dear Nandric, the Goldmund REF designed by George Bernard and the latest edition mkII also. The latest projects of both Simon & Pierre were about $25000 and it comes naturally the cause of their choise regarding BD TTs as Eddie first showing the seeds of the "exotic" creations (?)
I've had in my posession the Zarathustra S4 and the J4/SL5 and for a limited time (3 months) the Studio ST4. All of them were very fine TTs and not so far from reality ($$$).
Anyway right now I'm far away from this kind of lust and I feel that the Hi-Fi market's turning point at '80s with the Japan giants leaving the field to some hungry animals, it is still our torment today after 3 decades and we owe it to our love for this hobby to realise and accept the influence which has upon us the marketing status. After the shrinkage of the hi-fi market, the industry turns it's back and left the designers to seek for the whealthy victims among us. There is so little progress and so much BS today that the buyer is usually go for the more beautiful as a statement of his life style. But unfortunatelly TTs are not cars and so, his "Buggatti" is only for the eye and refuses to spin properly a vinyl.
Are we going to feed this monster again?