Reason for buying old/classic turntables

One thing I do not understand is the recent renewed attraction or romance with direct drive tables. What's wrong with a good belt drive that is well able to rotate the platter at a constant speed. Doesn't a belt design provide a more natural and cost efective means of isolating the platter from motor noise or vibration?

just listen to a top level direct drive tt and you will understand. my opinion is that belts have compromises, direct drive, properly exectuted, does not have compromises. the 'rub' is 'properly executed'. there are dozens of threads about belt verses direct drive. my viewpoint is not universally held.

I'm sure DD tables can sound good as well but the design seems like it would be harder and more expensive to accomplish well than belt drive. Maybe that's part of the appeal?

yes; the cost of designing a direct drive system from a clean sheet of paper and then selling it at a reasonable price could only be done with the economies of scale in the market place of the 60's and 70's. these days it takes a very very expensive tt to have an uncompromised direct drive system. that is the attraction of incorporating the direct drive system of these vintage tt's into a present day tt.

"my opinion is that belts have compromises, direct drive, properly exectuted, does not have compromises"

Ok, but what facts is your opinion based on?

The drive turns the table at a constant speed. Other than this, what else does it do to make the sound better?

I know it can make the sound worse if noise is introduced as a result of the operation of the drive system.

You may be right and I may be missing something...I am looking to be educated.

Mapman,

my opinion about DD verses belt drive is based more on my personal listening experience than on the technical merits, although there are many technical merits to support my listening experience conclusion.

i'm likely not enough of a technical guy to do any sort of comprehensive technical explaination of the 'facts'. but i will try to list a few of the areas where DD has clear advantages.

when i say DD i mean tt's such as my Rockport Sirius III, which do execute DD without compromise. there are many very very good tt's which use belts. my perspective is that any of these would sound better with DD.

belts (all of them to one degree or another) have the rubber band effect. the belts stretch and contract. motors have cogging effects. heavy platters compromise things in one way and light platters compromise things in other ways. heavy flywheels can solve certain issues but cause others. ultimately any belt system will allow for groove modulation....which is the speed altering affect of heavy groove friction at musical peaks.

again; there are many belt driven tt's which sound very good. it is not until you hear the same music with a top level direct drive system that you will hear what the 'absense' of these belt-sourced compromises sounds like.

way more space and foundation, ease and naturalness on musical peaks. piano's suddenly sound like real pianos. tonality is spot on and the music flows and soars that little bit extra. it is addicting.

there are many issues which effect tt performance; however getting the speed correct without any variance is one of the most important. belts simply have limitations in this area.

Peter Moncrief wrote a long but helpful article about why Direct Drive is better than Belts...

Direct Drive verses belts

Paranoia using a record brush made belt drive a non-hunter for me. A real drag, haha.

Mike is right.

Belt driven turntables have issues to overcome due to inherent belt creep that belie their apparent simplicity. That is not to say that a good belt drive cannot be made, however. As you are aware, there are several exemplary ones out there that find ways around the obstacle. The better vintage ones tend to only go with high mass to get the desired sound, however.

Direct drives require fancier electronics to pull off great sound, but when done properly, the result can be very, very nice. As noted, the really good used ones tend to be pricey.

Then, there are the idlers. Almost all of them have an immediacy that is lacking in typical offerings of the other types. Still, vintage models require a certain amount of mechanical experience to put them into excellent working order. Carry through with that, however, and you have great sound without extreme expense.

Then again, strides have been made in all the drive areas with some recent offerings. In the end, the decision has to be made by the individual who is making the purchase.