VPI Direct Drive Turntable

Hi Fleib,
On the other thread, I mentioned that I was using a 1000R load on the 980LZS and that I found 100R to be very unsatisfactory, I think because the sound was rather rolled off and muddy. Others took issue with me, saying that 100R worked fine with their 980LZSs. And that was that. I am sure it would be fun and revealing to experiment with other values above 1000R.

What is a "CA"? Clearaudio? To me, the term "magnetic drive" is typically just doublespeak for direct-drive, a term coined by some manufacturers (Clearaudio, maybe, and some others) to indicate that the product did not use belt drive but should not be tarred with anyone's prior bias against direct drive. Exceptions are products from EAR and Transrotor that have oddball drive systems using magnetics AND a belt.

Lew, I don't really know but the Clearaudio has a Delrin platter with a ceramic magnet bearing. It has a stainless steel subplatter which I think is driven by a DD DC motor. It also has an optical speed controller and will do the dishes after supper, so the WAF is high.
I got the impression that the Brinkman also uses a magnetic drive where the motor isn't directly connected to the platter. I've never even seen these tables so I don't really know what I'm talking about. Going by the sales blurb, they sound pretty cool.

When you were talking about the 980LZS I was loading at 270 ohms. Maybe Raul didn't have loading options on his MC stage at the time and maybe that's why he thinks the HO is better. Mine has very little use so I'm reluctant to be definitive. I'll try it again and see what 2K sounds like.
Regards,

Fleib: "I got the impression that the Brinkman also uses a magnetic drive where the motor isn't directly connected to the platter."

The Brinkmann Bardo and Oasis are both direct drive turntables. They are called by their marketing department as "magnetic drive" but since the motor and platter share the same bearing, the system is direct drive. The platter is a part of the motor where the rotor magnet is attached to the underbelly of the platter and the stator coils (coreless) are below the platter and they complete a coreless motor system that makes the turntable, well, turn.

The fear of a motor attaching to the platter would create wanted vibration is a misguided concept about the direct drive genre when that motor spins at 33rpm, about half hertz!

PS, The Clearaudio Statement, EAR Diskmaster, and Transrotor TMD and FMD systems are entirely different. They are NOT direct drive.

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New information on the motor of the new VPI direct drive turntable coming from Mark Doehmann of Continuum in Michael Fremer's Analog Planet website because the Caliburns uses a motor from the same manufacturer. Very interesting.

Here's what he had to say:

Mark Doehmann: "From publicly available information I see the VPI also uses a Thingap TG2310 motor coil which is an off the shelf motor system sans bearing. I was impressed by the low cost method used by VPI engineers to drive the coil effectively as a direct drive system. I'm very familiar with the motor and its true zero cogging performance. In a belt drive system it certainly pays off and the benefits would be translated to a direct drive."

There's more in the comment about the 3D arm too, so look it up. Also look up on ThinGap motors.

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Fleib, I was going to quote the very same sentence of yours that is quoted already above by Hiho. To wit: "I got the impression that the Brinkman also uses a magnetic drive where the motor isn't directly connected to the platter."

In addition to what Hiho says, I would only note that in any direct-drive turntable, the motor is not "directly connected" to the platter, IMO. It is more correct to say that the platter is part of the motor. Thus there is nothing touching the platter except the magnetic forces that drive it as part of the motor, the rotor part of a classical motor. The semantics are everything in this case, I think, because those who had poisoned the public mind about DD had repeated over and over for 20 years that there must be a "noise" problem, because the motor is "directly connected" to the platter. Not so. Quite the opposite, in fact. I am pretty sure you know this, but others might not. DD turntables do have some issues unique to the DD technology, but noise of that sort is not one of them.