Direct drive vs belt vs rim vs idler arm

Harold, how would you compare the Oracle hanging suspension to those of SME and Basis? I'm just curious, because they are also belt drive systems that use fairly developed suspension systems.

Peter, Basis turntables are suspended? I guess the top models in the line have pneumatic feet. I usually think of such turntables as un-suspended.

Lewm
Peter, Basis turntables are suspended? I guess the top models in the line have pneumatic feet. I usually think of such turntables as un-suspended.

Not directed to me, but the Basis Debut Gold is for sure hanging suspension.

The four towers on each corner rotate to adjust hidden springs within enclosed silicone cylinders, allowing for both level and tweaking of the damping rate. Basis even offers different springs so you can adjust precisely for different tonearm mass.

I owned two or three of these, the suspension system is well designed and very effective at isolating the table, arm and cartridge from floor borne input.

Peter/Lewn

My apologies totally forgetting BASIS turntables and their very sophisticated suspension system. I couldn´t find more info of its functional mode online but if it is tuneable/adjustable for different weighting TA´s everything´s OK. Well the BASIS flagship, The Work of Art must be something very special in suspended turntables, probably the very best designed so far. A stunning machine anyway.

The SME seems also adjustable for certain TA´s so if it´s truly a balanced system it must sound good as well. A suspension hanging on rubber rings is an antithesis to metal springs. Likely both systems have a certain characteristic sound of their own, depending how effective the damping systems are.

Albert, thanks for letting us know your BASIS experiences.

To get the best out of a suspended deck its subchassis must be perfectly levelled, balanced & tuned for a certain arm/cart combination. When applied downward force on to spindle there should be only up and down movement of the subchassis, no wobbling sideways whatsoever. If not, the sound especially in lower frequencies is always smeared in some extend. A suspension must work mechanically perfect, this is the starting point.

The ORACLE´s 3 spring suspension consists of 8 different parts in each spring ass´y. The latest model has also fluid damping added. It´s fully balanceable & tuneable for different TA´s. Yes, one can actually tune to a certain sound if necessary. To finetune an ORACLE is never easy but if one is married to one (for decades like me) it comes a second nature LOL. An ingenious system, but its manufacturing tolerances must be very low.
In fact, I have owned 4 DELPHI´s, 2 MKII´s, MKIII and MKIV. The MK IV with hard mat was a mission impossible to finetune sonically, I didn´t like its stiffer spring ass´y at all. It sounded awful :/ And the MKIII was impossible to finetune mechanically due to a slightly wrong placing of the adjustment stems for the springs. But it didn´t sound so bad LOL.

Let me take this opportunity to introduce you the ORACLE MKII.7 suspension in action (the video is very old, sorry for bad sound quality):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Ql9Gq6ir7hA

"Other than that device the only serious attempt to elimate the off center LP problems was Nakamichi through its 1000 TT model and latter on with the Nakamichi TT Dragon.

I don't know how easy or hard is to the LP manufacturers to have their LPs with a " perfect " hole centered. Today we pay a lot of money for new LPs/reissues and the like but the LP manufacturers never fixed that problem and IMHO no one of them take care about."

Al the test records (vintage and new) I have tried have been also off-centered. One was 2 mm off-centered. I was forced to send it back to the seller because it was quite hard to test anything seriously LOL.