Resurrection! Jean? (John) Nantais has come a long way!
Idler-wheel drives
Time to start the revolution: does anyone out there own an idler-wheel drive record player they actually listen to? Or has anyone out there heard an idler-wheel (not a Garrard SP-25) in a decent system? I own several record players, some "high-end", like an Audiomeca or Maplenoll, some simply good, like the AR-XA or Ariston, and I also own several idler-wheel players I built myself, following the Garrard-rebuilds going on out there: high-mass bodies to sink the vibration. They go deeper in the bass, are faster, have more dynamics, both micro and macro, are better at focussing detail, and are pretty well indestructible. Sure, the wheel's got to be in good shape and sure, it needs a good body - but so does a belt-drive. I'm tired of reading about the superiority of belt-drive, especially as most of those writing this have not heard good examples of the alternatives. Hellooo...anyone out there share my conviction? I'm a vinylphile, resorting to CD only when music I love is not available in LP form. I do listen to my belt-drives, which I love, but the idler-wheels I built myself depressingly crush every attempt I make at tweaking more performance out of them - depressingly because I went to a lot of trouble to collect them. I use tube monoblocks, a decent solid-state preamp, have sensitive "BBC school of design" loudspeakers that go down to forty and love tube amps (true 8-ohm speakers), and a collection of cartridges: Shure V15, Grado Platinum, NOS Supex and Kiseki cartridges and others - and tonearms: modified Rega RB300, Infinity Black Widow, Mayware Formula IV, Maplenoll air-bearing and so forth...
I don't want invective or cries of heresy: just good, old-fashoned empirical observation and experience and intelligent dialogue. I've rebuilt larger Garrards (but not the 301 or 401 both of which have eluded me), Elacs and Lencos (these are terrific: the spring suspension motor mount really works and it's Swiss craftsmanship - try it with a Rega arm). For the record, I make a few bucks restoring Maplenolls, so have nothing inherently against belt-drives, except that so far they just don't measure up. Enough of assumptions (based on reviewer brainwashing - "belt-drive, belt-drive"): idler wheel motors are individually balanced by hand (even on the Garrard SP-25s), weigh a few ponds and rotate very silently on true machined bearings at roughly 1800 RPMs (as oppposed to the average belt drive at 1 lb and 300 RPM)! They have torque and are immune to "stylus drag" and "belt-reaction" (sproing sproing, which is why thread drives usually sound better than rubber belts on decks offering both)....Begin discussion...
I don't want invective or cries of heresy: just good, old-fashoned empirical observation and experience and intelligent dialogue. I've rebuilt larger Garrards (but not the 301 or 401 both of which have eluded me), Elacs and Lencos (these are terrific: the spring suspension motor mount really works and it's Swiss craftsmanship - try it with a Rega arm). For the record, I make a few bucks restoring Maplenolls, so have nothing inherently against belt-drives, except that so far they just don't measure up. Enough of assumptions (based on reviewer brainwashing - "belt-drive, belt-drive"): idler wheel motors are individually balanced by hand (even on the Garrard SP-25s), weigh a few ponds and rotate very silently on true machined bearings at roughly 1800 RPMs (as oppposed to the average belt drive at 1 lb and 300 RPM)! They have torque and are immune to "stylus drag" and "belt-reaction" (sproing sproing, which is why thread drives usually sound better than rubber belts on decks offering both)....Begin discussion...