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
ochremoon- It sounds like you have heard quite a bit, so my assessment is also broad, to say the least.

onhwy61- None of the variables you referred to were obvious here.... Same rack.... feet and platter were similar or the same. 

We all hear differently, so I'm not suggesting belt (or Idler) drive have anything over DD.... All I'm saying is I preferred the belt drive that day.
This is meaningful only in the sense that you have compared two turntables and found that you like the sound of one better than that of the other.  Period.

I can tell you about two direct-drive turntables, one of which has an inherently more "romantic" sound than the other.  I could do the same with two belt-drives.
lewm- With regard to your first statement, very well could be the case. I also had a similar feeling about two belt drive tables, auditioned the same day. I definitely won't mention the names, because tone arm and cartridge were not the same.
I had a very highly regarded belt drive TT for the last 4 years and loved it. I now have a new DD TT with coreless motor and it just blows away my old belt drive TT. There are also too many variables here to make a good direct comparison between the two TT's but I'm just saying I really like the DD sound.

lancelock-Congrats on your move from VPI to the new Technics? Did you stay with the same cartridge? If so, can you share some general thoughts?