The "purpose" of a TT is to spin the record at a constan rpm and to provide a stable platform for the LP and tonearm. The motor and bearing should not transmit vibration/noise to the LP. Speed control should be precise and accurate. The spindle should be correctly sized and centered. The armboard should be dimensionally stable and should not transmit bearing and motor vibration/noise to the tone arm. Pretty simple performance standards, but implementation is the key, as always. Precision implementation, I should say; at the very small distances and signal levels we are talking about here, the margins of error are similarly small.
What makes for a "great" turntable?
I know that the cartridge, tonearm, phono pre-amp and other upstream components make records clearly sound different, but what is it about different turntables themselves (cartridge and tonearm excluded) that affects the sound? I would guess isolation from external vibrations and rotational accuracy. After this, what else is there that makes a great $30000 turntable sound better than say a much lower priced "good" table?
Also, how significant is the table itself to the resulting sound compared to the other things, ie tonearm, cartridge, phono pre-amp, etc?
Also, how significant is the table itself to the resulting sound compared to the other things, ie tonearm, cartridge, phono pre-amp, etc?