Some tables have soul and some not

Q: I know you strive for complete solutions, but have you ever thought about direct drive?

A: Yes, and after thinking about it I moved on. Bad idea, connecting your (microphonic) record directly to the shaft of a vibrating motor, no?

I, too, like and respect Simon Yorke but rather disappointed about the above. Another bewildering thing is his answer to the below:

Q: XLR vs RCA? Is balanced phono output a better one?

A: "XLR is a three-pin, centre-balanced transmission system. I’ve never encountered a cartridge with 3 pins per channel, have you? So, what are you going to do with that third pin on your chunky XLR plug? Taking a ‘balanced’ approach to a phono input is a good thing, but adopting the professional line-level transmission protocol (XLR) to do it is, in my opinion, mostly just playing games... marketing."

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Balanced isn't only 3-pin. It could also be 5-pin stereo-balanced.
If the phonostage is fully balanced(recall Violectrik), you can rewire tonearm for 5-pin stereo-balanced transmission. So aside from marketing, our cartridges/arms are balanced by default having +&- pins for each channel + Ground.

"Both BMW and Lexus are good engineering, but the former usually has soul and the latter has not. Mercedes is somewhere in between. "

Then the answer is obvious. If it's extremely reliable, it does not have soul. If it breaks a lot, it has plenty of soul. My old MG Midget, was one soulful machine.

I've read recent newz on Z-NN that any turntable that playz FZ muzik eventually get it.

Some of you should really get a pair or two of Diesel jeans advertised here. Just make sure that they are made in Italy not Tunisia.