why is belt drive better than direct drive?

As Sean said above, any variation of a DD motor is tranmitted to the platter. That's the big rub: speed changes. Most DD motors are constantly increasing and slowing their speed to adhere to the desired speed setting. These speed changes may be minor as a percantage increase or decrease of overall speed, however, even a miniscule change will affect pitch.

And perfect pitch is what it's all about, eh?

You are assuming belt drive is better when you posted your question. Not a good start...

I sell industrial inkjet coding equipment. Are 'drop on demand' inkjet printers better than 'continuous' inkjet printers? It all depends. It has to be dealt with on a case by case basis. So with direct drive and belt drive TT systems.

You need to ask yourself what do you the turntable to do. Yes, play music, of course, but there's more to it than that. All my TTs have been direct drive. I find it very hard to part with their strengths and am willing to work with their weaknesess (like isolation). Direct drives are for people who PLAY records.

Do you want to PLAY records?

The direct drive principle should have been the best, just as CD should have smoked LP. There has never been a Direct Drive TT, that I have heard, in the last 30 or so yrs, except the Goldmund Studio that has ever touched, even mediocre belt drive, or very old Idler drive systems sonically. The entire issue of Idler driven Garrard 301 and 401 as well as old Dual 1000 series tables , do present a substantial challenge to the best of today's belt drive systems. There is a life within those older models that eludes modern designs. Y. Sugano of Koetsu used the old Garrard 301/401 systems as a reference for his MC carts. I thought him insane untill I assembled one for myself and nearly passed out at the results. For people"who want to play records", there are plenty of great units available in todays market, belt driven to perfection. You can start with Well Tempered and you really wont have to go much further.........Frank

I think there are two questions here: are you more concerned with convenience and lack of maintenance, or the best sound possible?

Direct drive systems certainly tend to: get up to speed more quickly, have more automated features and don't need new belts, but.........there is a definite advantage to the speed consistency of a belt drive system. As was mentioned earlier, direct drive systems tend to constantly speed up and slow down. While a belt drive will typically measure worse than a direct drive, they typically have a more stable beat. I remember listening to a Linn table for the first time about 17 years ago and being amazed at how much it sounded like real music. It really sounded more like real musicians playing than a direct drive table or a cd player. So while a big deal has been made about motor vibration, I think that is secondary to pitch stability. Certainly, the better isolated a table is, the more detail can be retrieved from the record. IMHO, if you want the sound to be the most real, go with a belt drive and get a wall shelf to place it on. So is the next debate MC vs MM cartridges!!!!!

Tim

No one can PLAY records on a belt drive. DJs epitomize this concept...still, some people like fast starting, high torque, speed accuracy (frequency generated quartz lock)and electric braking. Those are the features that allow us to PLAY records. That's why DJs embraced the Technics 1200. It was never designed as a DJ turntable. DJs discovered it, though...

My 1200 is undergoing the modification process-$lowly...these modifications will convert it to a true high end Direct Drive TT system. It will harbor a low output MC yet it will still PLAY records.

Three links:

www.kabusa.com
www.needledoctor.com
www.1200s.com