Naim introduce a turntable - the Solstice Special Edition

Naim was always a strange company IMHO. We got some of their electronics in to sample way back when and I thought they were tinker toys, expensive tinker toys.

@rossb, no big surprise. I keep telling everyone that bass with unipivot arms is always challenged to on degree or another.

@chakster , I wouldn't call it awful. In typical Naim fashion I would call it an over priced tinker toy with a funny looking fat latter :-)

Plater 

I die laughing when I hear these terms applied to turntables. Plodding? Does that mean slow as in 33 1/8th or, does that mean increased amounts of wow? Maybe, it is more wow with more rumble. That would make sense on a Garrard as they are rumble machines. Lewm is quite correct. Turntables are designed with a certain mass platter in mind. Increasing the mass on an idler wheel table is going to accelerate wear on the wheel by increasing slippage on start up creating flat spots on the wheel which will invariably increase wow and flutter along with rumble. Idler wheel drives where also designed to slip "Q". A heavier platter would increase the time it takes to get up to speed. The TD124 had that interesting design with the very light platter platter cover which was lifted off the platter by that lever at the side providing very fast "Q ing" and minimizing wear on the drive. Many people do not know this but the TD 124 was a combination belt and idler drive in an attempt to isolate the platter from the motor. It was a rumble machine all the same. It was my first real turntable. With the SME on board it was a beautiful thing. 

fsonicsmith, I think you should convert to streaming only. This turntable thing is driving you nuts.

@lewm , I did own a TD124. It was my first real turntable (excluding my two Zenith bug eyed specials). You are probably right to like it least of all.
It was however, a boat anchor. You could probably drop it off a 10 story roof top and not hurt it. 
Every turntable in commercial use was used to slip que. The enemy of radio is "dead air." You had to know exactly when a song was going to start to the 1/2 second. What the DJ did was place the tonearm down on the record with the turntable off, "jockey" the record back and forth until he found the beginning of the song, hold the record in place with two fingers on the rim of the record and start up the turntable. At the exact moment he wanted the song to start he took his fingers off the rim. 
By design, the limited torque of a belt drive turntable made this maneuver impossible. You were supposed to slip the record on a felt mat but that created tons of static. Many DJs like me (campus radio station) just held the rim of the platter and let the idler do the slipping. Great way to tear up an idler drive. Direct Drive cured that problem but my DJ career would end long before it came around. The Idler drive was not designed specifically to slip que. It was simply the best way at the time to have multiple speeds on a turntable. Electronic motor drives were way off in the future. The AC synchronous motor running on line frequency was it.
All of the changers of the day used it. I'm not sure but I don't think there ever was a belt drive changer. Not enough torque to drive the changer mechanism. Direct drive put and end to idler wheel tables in commercial use. Audiophiles had drifted over to belt drive tables as the old idler wheel tables were noisy as all get out. The Thorens TD 125 was the turntable to have in the early belt drive era.

@lewm  My bad Lewm, I was too busy flying rockets through the neighbors windows to worry about spelling. Actually, I am dyslexic which was blamed on a bicycle crash when I was 6 years old. My head hit a concrete curb and I was knocked unconscious. I woke up that night with my pediatrician Hyman Alford, MD banging on my knees with a reflex hammer. My mother says I was black and blue under both eyes. It is not the usual form of dyslexia. I can read, but I have a hard time remembering what I read. If I read a name I will never remember it but if someone tells me the name or I speak the name out loud then no problem.  I can enjoy reading a novel but I won't remember anything about it. I get much more out of TV documentaries or audio books. 
Without spell check I am worthless. I did fly rockets through the neighbors windows :-)

@pani , define "not so sharp start-stop transients? Would that mean more Wow versus flutter? Or. maybe lack of same?

Audiophiles have developed some interesting way of describing what they think they hear, descriptors that have no definable parameters like pace and timing. Pace as an example is synonymous with speed which is supposed to be 33 1/3. Does this mean if a turntable has better "pace" it is running at 33 2/3? The music has timing not the turntable. There is a reason turntables sound like they do. We may not know the reason because it is hidden, more difficult to identify but it is there. The principle determinants of a turntable's sound are the cartridge and the tonearm. After them a turntable can inject noise (rumble), it can have speed fluctuations (wow + flutter) and any part can resonate or pass on environmental vibrations which will alter the system's frequency response. Theoretically all good turntables regardless of drive should sound exactly the same, like nothing, nothing at the right speed. They do not have pace and timing and they do not soften stop-start transients, whatever that means. 

Pani, it is exactly that kind of gibberish that I find particularly non sensical.
Stop trying to make up excuses for what you think you here. Just enjoy the music and comment on whether or not you like the sound. When you come with things like, "the leading edge sharpness, the body and decay, and the lead up to the next note, all forms the structure and the flow of the music." I want to puke. The structure and flow of the music is the sold responsibility of the artist not a bunch of tubes, wires, belts and paper cones. We "audiophiles"?? Please exclude me from that group

@no_regrets , I believe what you are trying to say is that you thought the Aro was neutral. It did not accentuate or mask any part of the frequency spectrum. Music is not grown without pesticides. Dynamics and tone are certainly important characteristics of a reproductive system but timing is solely up to the musicians. There is only one right speed. It is interesting that a piece of equipment can sound wonderful to one person and terrible to another. 

jasonbourne, they would like to think.