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What's the deal with idler turntables and do they have a place in modern HiFi?

After going through a complete overhaul of an AR XA I've been tempted to take a step further back in history and restore an old Rek-O-Kut idler turntable. Can't remember the particular model number from Craigslist, but it seems like it may be an interesting project and far more customizable than the XA, especially when it come to the tonearm. The one I'm looking at comes with the original tonearm, but my guess is that it's even more garbage than the stock XA 'arm and I'd certainly replace it!

However, I don't generally become invested in something if it doesn't pay off. So if the sound is going to be dreadful because it's an idler, then I'll steer clear. But if the sound is bitchin' then I'll jump on the opportunity!
128x128mjperry96
richardkrebs
353 posts
 
Dear All.
I suspect that the heavy/light platter debate will always have its disparate points of view.
 What we are  really talking about is low or high inertia platters and the matching of these to drives of sufficient torque, intimately coupled to the platter, to tightly control their speed. (Putting aside, for now, the high inertia, low torque design espoused by some. A completely different design path)
I agree that we don't have the tools, other than our ears, to measure the efficacy of these two design choices, but in my experience a high torque, high inertia drive trumps its opposite. 

tomwh
72 posts
 
You are no fun Richard!!!  You stated the facts we can not measure it so now what are we going to debate about.  The ones who want to bring in numbers all the time are the ones who gave us CD's, transistor amps and of course tilted up mc carts.
We don't need no stinken tone/body/drive and emotion in our music.

Just having some fun here!!!  For the record , At this point in time, high mass high torque best so far.  Don't get me started on wooden tonearms.

Enjoy the ride
Tom
richardkrebs
353 posts
 
Hey Tom.

Who would have thought that music is about emotion, how it makes us feel!

As you say, some get tied up in he numbers, but the acid test is 'How does it make me feel?"

No emotion, no contest.

cheers. 
thom_mackris's avatar
thom_mackris
680 posts
 
Hi Pani,

There is also a price to pay when the platter is massive. Light weight platters have been preferred by any "well-designed" TT designers for the same reason.

I would state this differently:  no single parameter can be optimized without taking the entire whole into consideration. Any architecture will always have strengths and weaknesses. Intelligently optimized, varying architectures converge but ultimately still carry their basic DNA (the architecture's key attributes - their strengths and weaknesses).

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design
pani
1,049 posts
 
Thom and Lewm, when I brought out the high mass vs low mass platter thing, the idea was not say one was superior over the other. Rather I wanted to point out that while high mass is a "workaround" for the torque generation in belt drive systems ultimately it has its own downsides too. At its best it is just a "workaround" with strings attached (no pun intended). Torque should come where it is supposed to come from and thats from the motor.

I am not a TT designer but having heard many turntables (most of them are belt driven and many of them with heavy platters), less than 5% of them actually could hide their "high mass" artefacts. So, for me it is just statistics
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