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.Yes, musicians can play at a different tempo but the notes will still be the same unlike a turntable which speed will affect the pitch. In other words, not a very good analogy.
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.