Motor Controller ugrade for Raven One Turntable

Syntax, Sorry about that. I did notice that you recommended VPI MOTOR plus SDS the first time around (yesterday), but I obviously could not retain such complex information in my pretty little audiophile head whilst composing my last post. Someone else also got the message wrong, which is what set me off.

Jaspert, I don't think that should be so. One of the functions of the motor controller itself is to protect the tt motor from poor quality mains supply, including ideally AC voltage instability.

Dear Syntax,
However, your comment about replacing the Raven controller with the VPI SDS was ill-advised. I am not familiar with any of the Raven turntables, but someone on the other newer "motor controller" thread has remarked that the Raven motor is DC, whereas the VPI unit is designed to run AC synchronous motors. So, to the OP, don't do that swap. It is always best to use a motor controller that you know was designed specifically for your turntable motor, for good or ill.

Dear Blackburn, You might think about changing your moniker to "Heart Burn".

If Blackburn prefers direct drive, he can't be all bad.

That's a pretty cool set-up, Syntax. Clearly you have studied at the feet of Dertonearm, at the school of two motors.

Dear Blackburn, A Maybach? A Rolls? A Ferrari 599GTB or Italia? What, for $300K? I am a car guy without your kind of bucks, but I was once a very successful Porsche collector (550 Spyder, Carrera GT Speedster, etc). If I had not sold them all, I probably could now afford an MBL amplifier, but I probably would not buy one.

I visited the Raven showroom last October at RMAF. Thomas seems like a very nice man, and the products appear to be beautifully made. I cannot but wonder therefore at the hostility typically provoked by discussion of one or another of their products on this website. As someone else commented, there seems to be a group of Raven-haters that is at least as enthusiastic and devoted as are the Raven-lovers. I have no idea why this is, but the turntables cannot possibly be as flawed as the detractors claim, just based on the quality of construction and the fact that there is nothing particularly adventurous about the design, meaning Ravens stick to the consensus approach to building a belt-drive, which has evolved over the last two or three decades. (How different sounding can a Raven AC be from a Brinkmann belt-drive, for one example?) I will never be a fan of 3 motors, however.