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My personal experience with Direct Drive versus Belt Drive

This is my personal , yet limited experience, with a DD versus Belt Drive. This A/B took place in the same system. with literally the same tonearm. I am choosing not to mention brands at this point. I feel by keeping the brand out of the discussion, anyone who contributes to the the thread (myself included), can be a bit more forthcoming. I am not big on audiophile jargon, so I will keep this short and sweet. I started with DD, in a system which I was very familiar with. The room of course, was different. The DD struck me as near perfect. I could hear the starting and stopping on a dime, and the near perfect timing that many have associated with the DD.  It didn't take long at all for me to conclude this was not my cup of tea. It satisfied my brain, but didn't move my heart. Maybe I was used to the imperfect sound of belt drives, and it was indeed that imperfection, that made for an emotional experience. Who knows? (-: Fast forward to the belt drive.... Again, same actual arm. It sounded more analog to me. Decay was much more easy to hear, along with subtle spatial cues. Was it the less than perfect timing, that was allowing me to now hear these things I could not with the DD?  I have no clue! What I was sure about was the emotion of the music had returned.
fjn04

Showing 5 responses by ct0517

ct0517's avatar
ct0517
2,041 posts
 
fjn04
Some years ago 2010 ?, I ran three turntables, in the same room, side by side with the same tonearm and cartridge, hooked up to the same pre/phono. It was a lot of fun. One was a custom direct drive, a custom belt drive modded with thread, and a 100 lb Lenco idler.

They were tested two at a time so two tonearms/carts. All I needed to do was switch wires going into the preamp,  to change tables. They were run against each other and also against 15 IPS master tape copies. Against tape all I needed to do was start the tape, then the record, and toggle between the two,

Very big differences between the tables as one might expect. The results I got helped me in purchasing my final table.

If interested, my findings and results are found easily here at AudioGon by typing "Goldilocks and the three turntables", in the top forum search field.
See also pic 19 of 42 on my virtual system page.

Cheers
ct0517's avatar
ct0517
2,041 posts
 
Speed stability is the number one job of a TT. For years I thought that too. But it proved to be wrong in my system(s). It´s just another theory, it´s an illusion. How the music flows is essential, and the starting point is the turntable itself.

There is the actual speed you set your turntable at and speed stability - two different things

My first stereo when I was small 10? was a Hitachi am fm cassette player with microphone. I didn’t like the commercials on the radio so I made a cassette tape of favourite songs and played it for two weeks. Only that tape. Then one day I turned to the radio again. The songs I had recorded did not sound as good as my tape. They sounded slower and lethargic. Boring. It wasn’t until I was a little older that I realized that the cassette tape motor was running a little fast. But its speed was stable. I learned the difference between the two at a young age.

If your turntable has variable, adjustable, speed control....some like to set the tempo of their records to suit their moods. Can your Digital system do that ? The important part is that the speed you set it at stays there. It is stable.

Put four musicians in a room and ask them to play on four different consecutive days. They will play a different tempo on each day. Fill them with cappuccino’s before the fourth day playing and see what happens. Humans are not robots.

ct0517's avatar
ct0517
2,041 posts
 
When I modified my belt drive to string drive, it was a definite improvement...clearly audible. From the instant the cartridge touched the record, the bass was more solid, more clarity in the mids, even it seemed to have improved the dynamics.
ct0517's avatar
ct0517
2,041 posts
 
^^^^^
hiho - pulleys also make noise.

I owned one of these TNT turntables. A very nice table I used it with and without the extra pulleys. It was outperformed by my custom Technics Sp10 and also the Jean Nantais 100 lb Lenco. Then I modified the TNT, including the use of thread. At this point it outperformed the Technics and the Jean Nantais lenco and produced music as described in my previous post - words courtesy of SG. 8^0
ct0517's avatar
ct0517
2,041 posts
 
Chris I tried looking up your thread "goldilocks and the three turntables " but couldn’t find it. Could you provide a link?
Also, off topic I apologize, but how do you contact a member directly in this system?

Analogluvr
See pic 19 on my virtual system for Goldilocks. The actual report is buried in my virtual system posts, I think from 2012-13 ! 8^0

I have asked Audiogon Support if there is a way to search and show a link as the Virtual Systems appear to be disconnected from the regular forum posts right now.

I sent you a test message. Login and do a member lookup. Send Message option should appear.

Chris
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