Direct Drive vs. Idler Drive vs. Belt drive

scar972

I'd like to know your thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of each drive system. I can see that direct drive is more in vogue over the last few years but is it superior to the other drive systems? I've had first-hand experiences with two out of the three drive systems but looking to learn more.

Many insightful responses above from knowledgeable, well established members. Over the decades, I can state with confidence that I thoroughly enjoy all drive types in my own system and each are represented at very high level. The execution of the drive and overall engineering integrity have a tremendous influence on playback. Honestly, I think they all have merit and any (Belt, Idler, Direct) drive platform when properly implemented can serve as a true analog point of reference.

88% Copper, 10% Zinc and 2% Zinc

Corrected typo. 

Gunmetal - 88% Copper, 10% Tin and 2% Zinc (typically)

@ferrari275 I will add more from the open sources if you’re interested:

Gunmetal, also known as Red Brass in the United States, is a type of Bronze — an alloy of Copper, Tin, and Zinc.

GUNMETAL is a type of bronze — an alloy of copper, tin and zinc. Proportions vary by source, but 88% copper, 8-10% tin and 2-4% zinc is an approximation. Gunmetal originally used chiefly for making guns!

** Micro CU-500 (2.7kg weight, 5mm thickness) is my favorite mat for Technics SP-10 mkII. I still have one in mint condition, but can’t use it on any of my turntables, simply too heavy for most of them. However, i’m happy to use Micro ST-20 gunmetal clamp on all my turntables. These two devices supposed to work together just fine. On my turntables Micro CU-180 (1.8kg weight, 3mm thickness) is what i like the most with ST-10 or ST-20 disc stabilizers. Gunmetal ST-20 simply became my favorite, it’s lighter than ST-20 and works like a clamp (if needed), not just weight.

 I own a Gunmetal Copper Micro Seiki CU-180 which I have compared to the Artisan Fidelity pure Copper Universal platter mat which I use sometimes on the Kuzma Xl DC, and they are similar, but the later can give some recordings a touch more weight and "body" if you will, to the sound. My thoughts here are it may be because gunmetal contains 88% Copper, 10% Zinc and 2% Zinc (est.) while the pure Copper mat does not contain the additional metal alloys.  

It's nice that you compared them, very interesting. 
I think CU-500 is better than CU-180, would be nice to read about A/B test of Gunmetal CU-500 and Artisan Fidelity Copper Mat.

Are you guys sure that the Micro CU-180 and CU-500 are made from gunmetal? The 'C' in the model numbers would suggest pure copper, does it not? Also, the color is somewhat different from the gunmetal plateaus that Micro made.

I would have thought that the Cu Infront would have given it away.....

@edgewear It's funny because on my original box from CU-180 i have a nice sticker on the right corner: "MICRO GOLD DISC CU-180" 

Like Voyager Golden Disc ?

Look at two different samples of CU-180 

On the right sample the grooves are deeper, both samples are originals. 
Even diameter can be different within +/- 0.2 mm as stated in the manual. 

I am using an original Micro Seiki gunmetal mat on my DD Brinkmann. Nevertheless I prefer the TTW carbon fiber mat on my DD Denon, quite an heavy item.

best

Hi @thuchan ,

Did you have an experience with DD EMT turntables (950, 948, 938)?

Regards,
Alex.

Atmasphere, it is my understanding that a properly designed air bearing turntable is virtually as stiff as any solid bearing. The platters are very heavy and the air boundary is very thin on the order of microns. It is extremely compressed. Just the mass of the platter would make minute vertical movements impossible without rather extreme force. Having said all this I think it would be extremely difficult to hear the difference between and SME 30/12 and an Air Force One. But, the Air Force One is three times the price due to the added complexity and expense of machining opposing faces of the air bearing to such high tolerances. 
My own feeling is that it is complexity for complexity's sake.  

IMHO a properly designed Belt drive turntable such as the Sota Cosmos, the SME 30/12, and the Basis Debut are the best solution to this problem.
The problem with Direct Drives is a big oscillating magnetic device directly under a very sensitive magnetic device. With Idler Wheel tables it is the added mechanical complexity adding noise (rumble)   

I had Nottingham Spacedeck and moved to heavy plinth Lenco 78 with SME 3009mk2 tonearm.
Lenco won in term of PRaT, piano and organ tone, better bass, better instrument separation, more musical. No rumble.
And Lenco wasn’t expensive High End turntable it was mid budget turntable.
Belt drive like Nottingham kills rhythm nuances and plays separate sounds. The general picture of music the essence of interpretation itself is disappears.

Regards,
Alex.

Perhaps you should try a heavy platter NA. I have one, and it does not suffer from the ills which you list.

After Lenco I use EMT 948.
It is a number of levels over Lenco and Nottingham Spacedeck.

Other my friend audiophile and musicant (flute player solist and conservatorio teacher) 
threw away his heavy platter Sota turntable after buying EMT 950 DD turntable.

@chakster, thanks for the picture of the two samples of CU-180. I also have two samples with similar differences. I've always wondered if the one with the 'deep groove' was the original, like my blue note pressings! But in this case they sound the same....

@edgewear i don’t have a golden ear to detect any difference in sound between gunmental and copper, but from my two Micro CU-180 only one sample can fit into by Luxman platter because of this +/- 0.2 mm tolerance in diameter between the samples (color also different).

Regarding Copper versus Gunmetal you can read item description from the experienced Japanese sellers like Otomon here:

" This is a precision machined, Copper mat that offers an optimal platform for vinyl records. This was manufactured from special Gunmetal which was research and developed by Micro Seiki. It cut off vibration from outside and make sound more clear and better low frequency. "

And here is Gunmetal platter from the same seller. To my eyes they’re identical in color while the Astisan Fidelity pure copper mat looks different in color.

Anyway, i'm sure they are all good. 

I modified my mid-level belt drive Pro-hectic TT to use a non-stretch Kevlar belt and a small needle-bearing idler pulley to tension it. TT bearing noise is so low it’s virtually unmeasurable on my oscilloscope. 

Bob, how could the changes you describe have affected bearing noise?

alexberger,

unfortunately I have no experience with EMT DD drives.
the Airforce tables are well designed, they do not have an airbearing concept like Caeles or the Apolyt.

best
E.

@thuchan

they do not have an airbearing concept like Caeles or the Apolyt.

i assume when you say 'Airforce tables' you are referring to TechDAS.

are you saying that the TechDAS Airforce tables do not have air bearings? or that their approach/concept to air bearings is different than the Caeles and Apolyt?

since clearly the Airforce tt’s have air bearings.

if it’s a different approach to an air bearing, please explain how it’s different. thank you.

The problem with Direct Drives is a big oscillating magnetic device directly under a very sensitive magnetic device.

@mijostyn   What is the result of this? We've been making and playing belt drive machines for about 20 years but when playing the Technics machines I don't hear anything in the way of noise floor that would suggest this is an issue.

Alexberger" "After Lenco I use EMT 948.
It is a number of levels over Lenco and Nottingham Specced."

You surprise me, Alex.  A legendary TT, costing 10x as much (used), beats entry level from Nottingham. Who would have thought it possible?

@atmasphere

With Mijo, I wonder about that too. If you were running a really low output MC like some of the AudioNotes, you would think that the electro-magnetic noise from the motor might have an effect. It is not clear just how that noise would manifest, and if it were a subtle veiling of the music, one might ascribe it to something else, or even not hear it consciously at all.

That would depend on distance and magnetic isolation, I suppose - and on the plinth and platter material; so I suppose that aluminum (paramagnetic), or even better, copper (diamagnetic), might be a solution. Might that be why a copper mat works well on some turntables?

Hi @terry9 ,

Nottingham Analogue  Sapcedeck is not entry level. It was a third level after HORIZON and INTERSPACE. I bought Nottingham Sapcedeck with Spaecarm in 2002 a brand new by full price.
I bought EMT948 in 2011 on eBay used by 2400 Euro. Yes I know that it costed 12000 DM brand new back in 1980x. But I payed a similar amount of money for both turntables.
An I also had Lenco L78 in between 2010-2011. And I liked this  low budget TT more than  Nottingham Sapcedeck. 

Regards,
Alex.

It seems that 10x was an exaggeration. I stand corrected.

I payed $3300 USD!!! for Nottingham with Spacearm included taxes.
The price was higher because I was living in Israel that time.
I don’t care about brand new price of EMT948 in 1980.
Personally, I didn’t pay more for EMT than I payed for Nottingham...

Ralph, One of the virtues of a coreless motor as originally designed by Dual and used by Pioneer, Yamaha, and Kenwood, and even now Brinkmann, is that the field it generates is in the horizontal plane, mainly. The engineers who designed for these companies and those who designed for the iron core motors in the Denons and Technics turntables, were not ignorant of this potential problem.  They took care to provide shielding.  In the case of my Kenwood L07D, in addition to the motor being encased in a metal that adds shielding (the motor in its case looks like a metal discus, sealed all around top and bottom), the platter uses a thick heavy sheet of stainless steel for a "mat".  Kenwood call it a "platter sheet".  Nevertheless, L07D owners are known to add even more shielding by various methods.  In my case, I had a machinist (Colby Lamb in Oregon) make me a new platter sheet out of pure copper.  It mimics the original in shape and weight to within a few centigrams.  I've been meaning to buy a cheap field strength meter to see whether I can detect a difference in radiated EMI, comparing the original stainless steel sheet to the new copper sheet, but I have not done it yet.  Although I like to think my copper platter sheet makes a big difference, because I paid Colby $700 to make it, I really cannot say the difference is huge, because I heard no problem before, and I hear no problem after, maybe a very very subtle difference.  Anyway, I don't care because the copper is beautiful to behold.  With my SP10 Mk3, the platter is simply enormous and thick, made of brass and aluminum.  It's dead silent.  With my SP10 Mk2, when I owned one, there I may have heard a faint grayish coloration to the sound, only when comparing it to the former two turntables named above.  Belt-drivers like to claim that the faint coloration they say they hear with the Mk2 is due to the servo "hunting" to maintain constant speed.  I think it's more likely due to EMI which could easily be ameliorated by either using a metal mat (which many do use with the M2 and others) or by simply adding shielding under the platter.  Perhaps the reason people like metal mats on some DDs has to do more with blocking EMI than with the inherent goodness of metal as a mat.  One reason I sold the M2 and kept my Denon DP80 is because the DP80 lacks that faint coloration I thought I heard from the Mk2.  (This is before I was lucky enough to find my Mk3 and the L07D.)

Atmasphere, I never thought it was a noise issue and I have to admit it is an intellectual bias without a shred of evidence that I know of. But magnets and magnetic fields have interesting ways of interacting with each other physically as well as electrically. My theory is that it is a distortion or tracking problem. All I can say for certain is that when these tables hit the market we were all enamored with them but quickly decided there was something wrong with the way they sounded. This is not just me but but all the audio big wigs in Miami circa 1980. The drive behind these tables was that they were cheaper, easier to assemble, much lighter (less expensive to ship) and could be pumped out in large numbers which they were. Since the Japs are capable of turning out an extremely polished device and the marketing hype was good they sold in droves until the digitally mandated vinyl crash. There are some newer DD tables I find intriguing and would like to hear but given my own experience I would never buy one sight unheard. 
One other problem is that I have never seen a DD table properly suspended. A drive be it belt, DD or Idler is entirely dependent on it's plinth for isolation. Cartridges being the very sensitive devices they are will pick up any vibration transferred from the environment to the drive. This is best and most reliably done (IMHO) by having a very inert sub chassis suspended by a system with a resonant frequency around 3 Hz.
SME and Basis tables are examples of external sub chassis. The SOTA and Linn are examples of internal sub chassis. The Walker and Air Force 1 use air springs. Other types of plinths rely almost entirely on the structure they sit on down to the foundation of the house. 

Al EMT DD are good suspended.
Two my friends -
One sold Linn LP12 for EMT 948 and other one sold Sota for EMT 950.
Other my friend prefer EMT 948 over Kenwood L07d and Technics SP10mk2, but he likes Yamaha GT-2000 as much as EMT.

I think than EMT 950 is the most unic DD. It was introduced in 1976.
It weighs ~80Kg and has ultra light rubber plate and powerful coreless motor. Even some EMT and vintage TT collectors prefer EMT 950 over idler drive EMT 927 and 930.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektro-Mess-Technik

Mijo, blah-blah-blah.
what could be cheaper to make than a typical modern belt drive in the under $3K price range? They multiply like rabbits. THAT is why belts became dominant. You can build one in your basement. ( I have respect for some expensive belts, starting with Dohmann Helix.) And most suspended turntables are not properly suspended. Or do you still want to ignore the placement of the motor, on or off the suspension. Either way is a compromise. If you’re obsessed with suspensions, Minus K or Herzan or possibly Vibraplane are ways to go. And each of those can be used with any drive system.

@lewm

If you’re obsessed with suspensions, Minus K or Herzan or possibly Vibraplane are ways to go. And each of those can be used with any drive system.

the Herzan active type systems can only be used when the gear has zero sensed self noise. any self noise will set up a feedback loop and burn out the device, or at least compromise the benefit. which is why it can’t be used on many turntables.

for instance it works perfectly with my dd Wave Kinetics NVS as it zero self noise. but my Saskia model two idler has considerable self noise so it’s not a candidate. most belt drives and idlers are not candidates. i could use a passive air device such as a Stacore with the Saskia and may try it.

For idle drive you need a very accurate mechanical production and professional design.
For DD you need high tech engine and electronic control system.
For belt drive you can get a cheap toy car engine, build it in your garage and sell it for thousands $$$.

This is not just me but but all the audio big wigs in Miami circa 1980. The drive behind these tables was that they were cheaper, easier to assemble, much lighter (less expensive to ship) and could be pumped out in large numbers which they were. Since the Japs are capable of turning out an extremely polished device and the marketing hype was good they sold in droves until the digitally mandated vinyl crash. There are some newer DD tables I find intriguing and would like to hear but given my own experience I would never buy one sight unheard.
One other problem is that I have never seen a DD table properly suspended. A drive be it belt, DD or Idler is entirely dependent on it's plinth for isolation. Cartridges being the very sensitive devices they are will pick up any vibration transferred from the environment to the drive. This is best and most reliably done (IMHO) by having a very inert sub chassis suspended by a system with a resonant frequency around 3 Hz.

Since that time Technics did quite a lot on their top-end machines to deal with those issues. The latest round seems even better- The SL1200G is now one of the most speed-stable machines made. A Sutherland Time-Line sorts that out quickly enough.

There are a good number of belt drive machines that lack in the way of suspension, but IME, I've found that if you really want a turntable to sound right, its got to perch on a proper isolation platform and in turn on a proper stand, whether suspended or not. I found my SOTA Cosmos to be dramatically affected by this practice; when I went to our Atma-Sphere 208 it was too and I found the lack of suspension on it to be of no consequence whatsoever, perhaps because our goal was to make the machine otherwise quite dead. FWIW, the Technics SL-1200G uses 6 different means of killing vibration (including a very dead plinth) so despite no suspension it seems to work just fine if on a proper platform and stand.


Our model 208 is as speed stable and neutral as any belt drive, but IMO the Technics is better. That's why we came up with an armboard for it so a tonearm that does it justice can be installed.

Here is a very interesting site about DD turntable:
http://www.edsstuff.org/dd_museum.pdf

I have a Garrard 301 grease in Woodsong plinth, EMT 948, and Kuzma Reference (belt/suspended). I like to think I love all my children equally. But if I had to sacrifice one it would be the Kuzma. 

Mikelavigne,

the TechDas tables do have an air cushion feature and air dampened feet. They do not have a real air bearing! You may look it up at my Caeles II report on AudioCirc.

best
E.

Mikelavigne,

just look under „Air Bearing“
maybe you see one the first time 😀

best
E

Right Atmasphere, if on a "proper stand" which includes the floor and everything under it, a situation most of us have no control over. On any wood joist floor you will be in trouble. Those of us on concrete slabs are lucky. I personally do not think that level of speed stability is all that important. Like distortion in amps it becomes a numbers game. But, I do not have any prolonged experience with modern DD tables. My bias comes from the unfortunately distant past. You as an audio manufacturer get a lot more opportunity to play with this stuff than I do and I do believe I am jealous of that. My life just lead me in another direction.
What tonearm would you put on the 1200G?  

@thuchan

thank you for that hint. i did see a picture of the bearing here;

https://audiocirc.com/2016/10/21/air-bearing/

looks very purposeful. it’s similar to what i had on my Rockport Sirius III. not sure about the TechDAS.

currently my CS Port LFT1 has an air bearing and the whole platter sits on an air film. it is a low flow low pressure design. i like it a lot.

Mikelavigne,

these are all airfloating designs but not using a real airbearing.
For a real airbearing you need a powerful compressor, it is 1m x 1m like the DUERR Technik. You need to put it into a separate room.

but these designs are very nice too!

best
E.

I personally think magnet floating designs like the Clearaudio and SOTA bearing are a more elegant solution for a thrust plate. As for which one is stiffer I have no idea. As Atmasphere implies the connection between the bearing and the tonearm base have to be absolutely rigid. With either the air "float" or magnet float designs there is an element of squish. So we have a trade off between bearing noise and wear vs squish and whatever that does to the reproduction of music. I would certainly think a compressor would wear out long before any top quality bearing and I have heard a number of top quality tables with standard bearings make essentially no noise that I could ascertain under normal use so to my way of thinking air bearings of any type are filigree. Opposing magnets on the other hand if stiff enough than why not?
I do find it interesting that this discussion has boiled down to derivations in belt drive designs.  

Mijostyn,
i guess you never heard an air bearing table, of which only two brands exist today. You do not have any noise from the compressor as it stays in a different room. Do you know about the advantage of air bearings towards other bearings? Of course it depends how far you are going with your system, most people do not like big compressors (maybe they never worked with a DUERR Technik).
Accepting a good design is ok as far as you do not like to reach „the moon“ 😀

Best
E.

This discussion hasn't "boiled down" to anything at all.  The subject at hand is always a function of who feels like posting at any given time of day or night.  My personal predilections are against excess complexity per se.  I don't want a compressor in my room OR in the next room OR in my system anywhere, not because an air bearing is not excellent but because I don't  want the complexity, the hoses, the moisture problems, the filters, etc.  And probably also because the turntables that employ air bearings are beyond my upper limits in what I am willing to spend.  There IS a point where cost is laughably high.

Even with magnetic levitation designs, there are quite different approaches.  The ClearAudio and Verdier, etc., designs float the platter, with a shaft only used to center the platter. 

Some designs use magnetic levitation to reduce the load on a conventional bearing.  This load reduction reduces wear and reduces the amount of noise generated by the bearing itself.  Hard contact, in this design,  is not designed to just prevent vertical movement, it is used to allow dissipation of any vibration imparted in the platter by the stylus tracking the grooves of the record.  The bearing itself is part of the path for dissipating this energy.

The old and refuted Aristotelian methodology discriminated between
''essential'' and ''accidental'' properties of objects. His physics  is
refuted by Galileo his logic by Frege.
Those who are not familiar with modern methodology still use 
Aristotelian ''essentialist philosophy''. Think about ''essential 
part'' by MC carts being the stylus and its shape. The kinds of
''drive'' by TT's etc.,  etc., etc. 

Addendum. Some examples can illustrate some ''state of
affairs''. Say the question why Russians think that Hegel is
the most important philosopher? Because of his (dialectic)
Logic? Well he wrote an big book (in two parts) with more
than 1000 pages with the title '' The science of logic'' in
which there is no on single sentence relevant for modern
logic. 
 

What has Hegel and Aristoteles to do with our forum?
We have seen Aristoteles  ''essential properties'' but need
to add Hegels ''logical invention'' called ''the unity of the
contradictory''.
According to chakster  the micro ridge stylus is ''essential''
while our eloquent member from Australia was so impressed
with his Sony XL 88 D that he declared the precious  to be the
best ever (in his) collection. He ascribed this ''quality'' to the 
(diamond) cantilever but the case is that this cart has  elliptical
 stylus. Aluminum cantilevers? Are you joking ? Never heard about 
beryllium or ,at least, boron or ruby cantilevers ? But the same
person ''confessed'' that among his darlings belong FR-7 fz as
well Takeda's Miyabi. Both with aluminum cantilevers. 
Such, according to modern logic inconsistent statements, can be
found in nearly each thread. That is the ''connection''. 
 
. 

lewm,
i love complexity! It needs to be handled and somehow in price not overloaded. Without complexity in the turntable/tonearm/headshell/cart/SUT/phonopre issues what would we do in our hobby?
Also a compressor is something you can handle easily today, nevertheless I understand people not getting into it.

best
E

Nandric you hoping for enlightenment in this industry is interesting.  You have more self appointed experts who can not agree on anything.  The basic hasty generalization is also king.  So I guess the questions are:

1. Rigid or flexible
2. Light vs heavy
3. Drain or reflect
4. Damped vs undamped
5. Resistance vs No resistance
6. Silver vs copper
7. Wood vs metals vs carbon fiber vs etc..
8. Arm pods vs direct connection
9. Motor pods vs direct connection
10. Sand vs rubber vs springs vs air vs etc.
11.  Straight vs curved
12.  Over hang vs under hung
13.  Antiskate vs no antiskate
14.  Vta adjustment vs no vta adjustment
15.  Azimuth vs no azimuth adjustment
16. Etc...................

Anyone that is good with numbers realizes how many possibilities there are just with the above variables.  Throw into the mix how many of the judges have any musical background and we're any good to start with.  Do you think the reviewers where hired because they could hear or write.  Magazines survived because of ad revenue or educational awards.  

I will leave you with a question.  If Miles Davis was alive would he be interested in the tone and feel of the instrument or the detail and air???

Enjoy the ride
Tom

According to chakster the micro ridge stylus is ’’essential’’
while our eloquent member from Australia was so impressed
with his Sony XL 88 D that he declared the precious to be the
best ever (in his) collection. He ascribed this ’’quality’’ to the
(diamond) cantilever but the case is that this cart has elliptical
stylus. Aluminum cantilevers? Are you joking ? Never heard about
beryllium or ,at least, boron or ruby cantilevers ? But the same
person ’’confessed’’ that among his darlings belong FR-7 fz as
well Takeda’s Miyabi. Both with aluminum cantilevers.
Such, according to modern logic inconsistent statements, can be
found in nearly each thread. That is the ’’connection’’.

Very interesting, indeed @nandric

One of the simplest stylus (Elliptical on one of the most exotic cantilever (Diamond, gemstone cantilever) - this is SONY

On the other side is pretty simple Aluminum cantilever with advanced stylus tip such as Refined Contact (on FR-7fz) and PH Semi Line Contact tip (on Miyabi MCA).

What we have here is an extreme on both ends:

1) better cantilever, but simplest diamond
2) better diamonds, but simplest cantilever

But both cartridges as LOMC, so we have something in common here. But at the same time we’re comparing apples to oranges, because those cartridges are different and designed by different people with different concept in mind.

I think people who love to "upgrade" their LOMC with help of some re-tippers could change cantilever on FR or Miyabi, they could also change stylus tip on SONY.

What i can do with my MM cartridges like my favorite Grace LEVEL II or f14 is to swap all kind of original styli designed with different cantilevers and diamons by Grace in the 80’s

I can compare simples and advanced design on the same cartridge body as LEVEL II LC-OFC , i could add nearly all combinations in existence such as Aluminum/Elliptical, Aluminum/LineContact, Aluminum/MicroRidge or Ruby/Elliptical, Sapphire/Elliptical or BoronPipe/MicroRidge .... also some great styli with Beryllium and even with Ceramic cantilevers with stylus tip i can’t describe accurately, because i’m not sure. But all these coming from one manufacturer for one particular MM cartridge model (Grace LEVEL II). This is wonderful for our own research and testing at home, isn’t it ?

P.S. sorry guys for off-topic, it was just the answer

Dear Tom, How get people  this conviction about 'essential'',
''original'' and other ''properties'' of objects? The most are not
familiar with Greek believes which are ''transfered''   by education
to the next  generations. Think of Greek ''metal analogy'' by 
describing  persons; ''iron strong'', ''honest as gold'', etc. In 
social science  one was looking for the ''original 
meaning of words''. to explain their ''real meaning'' . Your
 examples testify of the  ''opposite meanings'' of ''terms''. Hegel
 was master in the ''opposites''. Each  term has its opposite
 while opposites have  their own opposites.
He constructed an labyrinth of words and was not able to find
the way out. So he ''solved'' the problem by invention of
''unity of opposites'' like the unity of the contradictory. But, alas,
words are not linguistic entities which can be true or false. Those
are statements, sentences or propositions (choose your own).
Kant and Hegel never grasped that they are talking about language
not about reality. That is why they were obsessed  with ''meanings''
thinking that those ''explain reality''. But what kind of things are
meanings? The so called ''theory of meaning'' has lost the battle
with ''Theory of reference'' . Reference , uh, refer to external
objects in the reality. That is the connection with language. 
Japan was so successful because they improved the ''original 
products'' from the West . Why are Americans so obsessed 
with ''original parts''? 
Why so many in our forum think that there are ''essential '' and
other ''not essential parts'' by each composed thing from parts ?
This is because of Aristoteles influence in the Western education.
His ''authority'' ruled for 2000 years in Europe. Some social
scientist  still search for ''essential things''. They are also talking
about the meaning  of terms.

Thuchan, I do take your point re complexity. I admire industrial art for art’s sake. For that we also have cars and cameras, along with vintage turntables, vacuum tubes, and oddball speakers like my Beveridges. Just no compressor in my audio system. I had to draw the line somewhere.