Why will no other turntable beat the EMT 927?

Dear Richardkrebs, thanks for sharing. Like the EMT 930 the SP10 were created with a different set of goals from the 927 by their designers. While you might tweak them you can't change their nature.

Lew,

I did dismiss turntables with lightweight platters, until I heard a Mitchell Cotter. The motor can provide the needed system inertia, though. By the way, the EMT 927 platter is fairly lightweight. It is around 12.5 lbs. not counting the mat, if my memory serves me.

According to Mark Kelly's math, 35 lbs. is the cutoff point for the weight of an idler type turntable, but I have never put it to the test.

The servo mechanism used in top Denons seems to have a leg up on the others I have heard, but my exposure is extremely limited.

Dover.

Thank you again for your interest in my upgrade, re the "woolly" comment, you are quite correct. Please refer to my web site where this phenomena is specifically discussed. It takes months for this trait to settle, whereupon it becomes superior to the original. See also the comments from Joe of Pass Labs, covering this topic.

Dkarmeli.

Thank you for the feedback. I have not heard a 927, but from the pictures it appears to be a superbly engineered machine.

Dear Dover, "From my listening experiences neither of these DD's would compete with the top Micro Seiki's that I have heard in the areas of musical flow and coherence."

You don't need top MS tables for that the basic RX-1500 is already superior to these tables in those areas. Then again Micro Seiki's track record speaks for itself.

Dear Mosin, I'm assuming that you're talking about Denon's broadcast models. I had a DP-100M which unfortunately went missing on the way to one of the shows. You're correct about the Denons, they don't suffer from the servo artifacts and are extremely accurate and musical but it was closed system so all my listening included Denon's arm. I heard good things about the DP-308 but never came across one.

In the world of mass market consumer products Denon is quite unique in their ability of making very musically satisfying products even in their budget range.