Is Direct Drive Really Better?

And, that Denver trip is less than 10 days away! I'm salivating all over the keyboard just thinking about it!

Microjack, if you'll allow me an observation. I get the impression that your real motivation for starting this thread, and coming to some of the conclusions you seem to have, was to somehow justify doing what you wanted to do. Sell your current table and buy a table that you had your eye, or curiosity, on. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm much the same way. However, there is a pervasive theme through many of the well thought out posts here. That is, all of the popular drives have their benefits and short-comings, it still comes down to implementation of the whole table.

Personally, I'd be much more interested in a shoot out between your Druids and a few other well regarded speakers. Not trying to hi-jack the thread, but the Zu's do have my interest.

Teres: You *elected* to implement it with direct-drive. Why? Marketing (which I think may be a good move in a crowded BD universe), and/or something more?

PA: You lost me, I don't understand the meaning of your response to my wisecrack (which was only in reference to "watching women's palms" -- intended as a joke, though I'm guessing you're not joking about anything...)

Zaikes, if you think about for a minute, moving to DD for marketing reasons alone would be a huge gamble (some might say insane), to say the least, from a business point of view. I've worked for start-up companies for almost 12 years and I can assure you if you swim against too strong of a current you will drown quickly. Chris can certainly speak for himself, but based on everything I've heard about him I doubt there is anything short of a sincere desire to improve the current state of the art being offered from Teres. Healthy skepticism is a good thing, pessimism is another issue. Especially when it is expressed from a position of absolutely no first hand knowledge of the table in question. But you are entitled to your opinion. I'm not trying to throwing darts at you, maybe just spill a little beer on your foot. :) Where did the animal go?

P.A. may be waiting for me to apologize for calling him psychotic although, if he really is psychic he surely knows I meant no harm.
I've assumed from first hearing of it that Teres is looking to raise the bar not the bar graph. If Chris was looking to sell more tables, he'd be designing Teres Jr. for mass consumption rather than some ambitious project that I won't be able to consider buying.

I was sincere in my question to Teres -- not pessimistic, only a bit prodding. I think it's possible to do both (good marketing and good design; there's nothing wrong with the former as long as it serves the latter), I just sense he's downplaying the reasons why Teres is, in your words, taking "a huge gamble". For all the reasons you list why this wouldn't be undertaken lightly, it's hard to conclude anything other than that Teres does believe that DD holds more promise in some important way(s). I want to know why.