Direct drive vs belt vs rim vs idler arm


Is one TT type inherently better than another? I see the rim drive VPI praised in the forum as well as the old idler arm. I've only experienced a direct drive Denon and a belt driven VPI Classic.
rockyboy
"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.
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."

Here is a perfect opportunity for someone to create a press that punches out the center of an LP and provide an adjustable sleeve that allows for perfect centering of each LP.

Of course you could not sell the LP once this was done, unless the next buyer was another fan of this product.

Crazy idea? Hey, we had Audio Desk selling a rather expensive device to trip CD edge to make them perfect and by all accounts listeners got a nice upgrade after the tweak was applied.
I am not sure if anyone has touched upon it, but in absolute terms, virtually every review I've read on Direct Drives say that stage width has a tendency to being narrower. Is this due to the fact that the motor is directly beneath the platter, and the magnetism has an effect on the upward downward portion of the record groove (the Stereo bit)
Not only that but I am curious as to whether or not anyone has tried lifting and butchering a direct drive deck other than the Technics SL1200's - I say this because quite a few such as numark ttx's have really good specs
Lohanimal,
It is more a function of the error correction systems used in direct drive TT's. Like digital, they have inherent jitter that destroys the time and phase relationships of the music signal. This results in soundstage aberrations as well as a lack of resolution due to smearing.
The designers of the SP10mk3 & Kenwood L07D tried to minimise this by running higher mass platters, but it is still there.
Agree with Dover. Listened yesterday to a SP10 Mk3 in a Artisan Fidelity Box ... I can't take that serious. More a toy than a serious High End Table. Piano and Trumpet Tones are changing multiple times, depth and physical presence does not exist.