Lewm has it right. The Monaco is a very well executed dd turntable that uses a 12 pole Hall sensor commutated motor. Nothing unique there. What is unique is the use of sinewave commutation as opposed to square wave commutation. This used to be extremely expensive, but clearly the price has dropped. Mr. Lloyd's design is elegant and brilliantly executed using high quality parts and superb machining and construction. I don't think I could have been more lavish in my praise of that aspect of the design and execution. However, just as spring suspended designs and mass loaded designs, and belt drive designs have sonic signatures, so do dd turntables. Back when the original Technics dd designs were issued, they too claimed speed perfection and the measurements available then demonstrated that was true. However, the 'hunt and peck' aspect of the servo system, which was always correcting and overcorrecting in the process of producing "speed perfection," produced a brightness and a discomfort that brought about the "belt drive" revolution of the Linn LP12. Belt drives (mostly) have problems that cause wow and flutter, but these are less perceptible as it turns out, than the high speed constant corrections of those old dd turntables. The Monaco design goes to great lengths to deal with the issues of Hall sensor torquing, and all of the other problems associated with dd motors where the platter is literally part of the motor, just as the Caliburn design has gone to great lengths to deal with the known issues of belt drive designs. Neither acheives perfection and both have sonic attributes. I stick by my sonic description of the Monaco both good (superb rhythmic-pacing performance and outstanding bass) and less good (a dry or tight quality in the midrange with a loss of low level detail and harmonic development) compared to the best belt designs. Which one prefers is always a matter of taste and as long as one understands the sonic character, one can better choose a complimentary cartridge and phono preamp. This is true of every audio product. The Monaco "white paper" claimed "neutrality" and colorlessness for the turntable. Sorry. I don't buy that there or with any other audio product I have ever encountered in more than 20 years of doing this. The review should no more discourage any interested parties from considering the Monaco than the review of the Merrill, which said that the bass was not as tight, extended and well controlled as the Monaco, should discourage audiophiles from considering that 'table. The rest of the blather here really is pretty foolish in my opinion and not worth the cyberspace it takes up.
