Direct drive/rim drive/idler drive vs. belt drive?

A belt creep is someone who has a size 54 waist, but still uses a size 34 belt, hung WAY low over the grossly protruding beer belly :-)

Belt slip is when he reaches for something over his head and his pants fall down :-))

Does efficient bearings like Clearaudio Magnetic Bearing bring belt drive/high mass platter design CLOSER to low mass/direct drive design??

Hiho,
y.s:
>> I rather have a better stronger motor to get the dynamic I want than to get it from a high mass platter <<

As you have noted I am with you actually. BUT without (and I said it much earlier) a VERY! good motor controller your wish is not going to be much of an improvement over a high mass platter - maybe quite the opposite!
The same applies to DD tables if not even more so.
Hard drive-line + so, so, controller = incoherent sound.
There are hardly any VERY good motor controllers commercially offered for all I know. So be careful what you wish for.
To my knowledge there is nowhere near close a solution, even with 'upper-class budget' , to replace soft belt and mass platter -- also supported by my mentioning these Audio magazines.
But if you are fine blowing ~ 25k plus, then you might even get a decent controller with a lighter = more dynamic! platter.

Therefore my point = simply - a Reality-Check!

Greetings,

"without a VERY good motor controller your wish is not going to be much of an improvement over a high mass platter - maybe quite the opposite!" - Axelwahl

I should be clear when I said "good motor" I also infer good motor and its associated controller as a system. Good motor system, that is.

My motor for tape driving is the Technics SP-10mk2 which I think is good enough for me.

Nilthepill, To answer your question with my opinion, no. I don't see how a magnetic bearing, which acts in the vertical plane only, can possibly have such a dramatic effect on the drive system, which is mostly operating in the horizontal plane. But your question assumes that low mass/direct drive is inherently superior to belt drive/high mass, which probably is not categorically true. Success of either design philosophy will have a lot to do with execution. I am thinking that, while I personally have begun to favor the low mass platter/direct- or idler- drive turntables based on my listening, this approach is the most difficult and potentially expensive to perfect. Whereas I think it is easier to get "decent" results with a high mass platter/weak motor/low compliance belt. Maybe that explains the predominance of the latter type of turntable in the "high end". I'd love to hear a Grand Prix Monaco myself. I wonder whether the carbon fiber adds a coloration, for one thing.