Is Direct Drive Really Better?

Jejune, Not even close to the 1200. The Teres DD table will be flagship offering. It's both difficult and expensive to do DD right.

I thought the big belt drive Teres tables were flagships. If this DD thing is even more expensive then mebbe the 4yanx was right but sooner than he thought.

Since Teres makes one of the leading belt drive tables and has made quite a name for itself in so doing, I would say that their announcement weighs heavily in favor of DD superiority.
Again the question ------ at what price point?
Like Viridian, I value actual experience over projections and calculations and I suspect Chris at Teres has experimented with and tested turntables more in the last several years than all of us put together. For him to change directions so radically, I have to assume that he found more than just a likelihood that DD has greater potential than the belt drive with which he has enjoyed so much success.

There is no reason to believe that micro speed variations in turntables would be inaudible simply for the reason than that they are of a lesser magnitude than those present in the lathe or recorder. After all, we can hear music around 15 to 20 db down into the noise floor of a record. The fact that there are other speed distortions that are present does not mean that those distortions have the same spectra and period as the ones in the turntable drive system. And, by extension, there are no clear reason to believe that other speed variations in the chain would "mask" variations in the drive system or even mitigate their audiblilty.

Good enough that a direct drive offering from Teres is in the works.

I've said before and it is in the archives: the Teres is a direct drive in drag.

With psychic power and primal intensity,

About stylus drag. I am unaware of anyone who has actually measured it and can certainly agree that it seems far fetched. However, we should not underestimate the audibility of timing errors. Digital jitter on the order of tens of picoseconds has been shown to be audible. A pico second is one trillionth of second! At the 44 Khz sampling rate this is less than one part in a billion. It's easy to imagine that 2 grams of tracking force might have a one part in a billion effect even with a 100 pound platter. Measuring such a small effect would be difficult but not impossible.

4yanx, I have never thought of myself or my customers as being supporters of belt drive. It's what we have used and it has and continues to be a very good drive system. I suspect that our customers are not married to a particular methodology and will accept whatever delivers the best sound. But I hasten to add that Teres Audio is NOT abandoning belt drive. The new Teres DD setup will be considerably more expensive to produce and required a much bigger development investment. And while it does deliver considerably better performance it does so at a price. I think it unlikely that we will ever be able to come up with DD system that will compete, at the same price point, with our current belt drive motors. Of course we will try, but don't hold your breath.

So is DD superior? I think that the answer can only be yes and no. When it comes to the best money can buy, then yes I believe that DD has the potential for performance that cannot be matched with either belt or idler drive. But be prepared to spend a lot to get there. When it comes to more reasonably priced turntables then it comes down to the quality of implementation and also personal tastes. As a generality I think that belt drive tends to offer better sound for the money at all but the highest price points.