I built my own Turntable and here are the results

"the tighter the coupling between the arm and the bearing of the platter, the better."

Completely agree. I firmly believe the bearing/platter and tonearm should vibrate in unison if any vibration occurs at all. I think this is the one area Red Point and Galibier turntables differ in a major way. Admittedly, a separate tonearm pod has a more macho look and more convenient for transport.

What I meant is that Red Point and Galibier are different from each other. Red Point uses a separate armpod and Galibier uses a cantilevered armboard attached to the base. I did not mean both brands are different from the DIY turntable. Sorry for the confusion.

Personally I prefer the Galibier approach.

Simon Yorke turntables do not use separate armpods. It uses a cantilevered armboard attached to the base. The armboard is, I believe, marine grade plywood said to be the best sound for SY tables according to their designer after extensive experimenting. He could've easily machine a separate armpod with fancy alloy material but opted to have tighter coupling between tonearm and bearing. I subscribe to such approach because my friends and I had similar experience and none had good sound when the arm is decoupled from the table base. I would love to be proven wrong because I think having separate armpod is quite convenient in adjusting overhang and maneuvering purpose. The Merill turntable takes such approach to the extreme by machining the armboard and bearing mount as one single piece so, obviously, swapping tonearm is not as easy and armboard/bearing mount need to be custom made for each individual arm. Again, just my own experience...

"But what about when you quite accidentally brush the arm pod and you then need to stop everything whilst you get out the protractor and relive the unpleasant experience of re-aligning the tonearm?"

You are right Lewn, I had the exact unpleasant experience before. If I am forced to keep a table with separate armpod, I would find ways to drill a hole or bolt the pod to the platform. I think the Verdier simply bolt the armpod to the same platform the platter and bearing assembly shared so it's almost a hybrid. Cantilevered armboard has its flaw too - diving board effect. Anyway, I think we are on the same page about keeping tonearm and bearing as tightly coupled as possible. The separate armpod thing has better snob appeal. The same thing with thick and heavy platter, I cringe whenever I see platters thicker than 2 inches. Not my cup of tea, that's all.

If it's Oolong tea then I will take it.

"I think this separation-scheme is looking for trouble, never mind just getting pushed over or only just moved out of alignment."

You can always check if the oolong tea is shaking in the cup to check for misalignment.

All jokes aside, I completely agree. Trouble, trouble. But then again, what fun is it if we audiophiles are not trouble makers? :-)

The armboard on the Continuum Criterion turntable uses, I believe, magnetic separation. I wonder how that sounds compare to just rigid coupling...