Why According to some Turntable extremists Pitch Control and Direct Drive is Sacrilege?

The Anvil Turntable is a very special design, actually it remains me of another great modern TT, the Salvation designed by Vic the Magician at Trans-Fi Audio in the UK (well of course).
At the time, a couple of years back I was planning to make my own TT and just came across the Anvil Turntables online. I suddenly realized that I was looking at an incarnation of Vic´s Salvation. What a gorgeous design, so simple and beautiful ! So I got in contact with Bruce to make an appropriate motor for my platter I had had a few months already. Well, you know I was very tempted to just buy the Anvil but I had my plan to complete. Bruce was very helpful but we faced platter size problems with fitting his motor  to my a bit larger platter. Long story short, we couldn´t solve our problem so I gave up ... What a shame.

Now I can´t find his turntable shop online anymore. Is he still making them, what happened to Anvil ?

@has2be I don’t care about belt drives, it’s a priori inferior technology. There is a belt with compliance, low torque .. this is what i never liked. This is enough for me to ignore this technology forever.

No single belt drive can give me what a Direct Drive can, been using japanese DD motors for about 25 years. Two Luxman PD-444, Two Victor TT-101, one Denon DP-80 is what i have now for the main system.

Sold my Technics SP-10mkII and SP-20.

If you ever seen me recommending Technics for other users it’s because nothing can compete with the current price for a brand new Technics G or GR, only some vintage Direct Drive TT can be better. And nothing can compete with the prices for top quality vintage DD like Denon DP-80, you can’t buy anything like that for the money people asking for DP-80 drive for example. It is a steal, best deal ever.

Your belt drive is a joke in this price range up to $1500, considering a good belt drive for $1200-1500 is a dream, shops selling entry level turntables for students for that money nowadays, for this price you can only buy some plastic toys on the modern market (made in china).

As i said some belt drives that i believe can be good cost $30 000 (like top Micro Seiki) and thank you, i’m better off with my Luxman PD-444 DD for under $3000 or even Technics SP-10mkII for $1500.

The prices for Garrard 301 are insane! So if you have unlimited budget for all those overpriced belt drives or idler you’re free to buy them all. But motivating people to buy a cheap junk belt drives is not what i’d like to do on the public forum.

When you’re talking about some turntables please add the models and prices, i have no idea what you’re talkling about.

While vintage Japnese Direct Drive are the most reasonably priced High-End turntables on the market it is much better to buy them for those who does not have unlimited budget. And i’m not talking about some cheap modern junk, i’m talking about exceptional Direct Drive turntables from the 70s/80s, they are still 10 times cheaper than any belt of idler pretedning to be good.

Personally i’ve never paid more than $1500 for any top vintage Direct Drive i’ve mentioned here (with express delivery to my door from all over the world).

What $1500 belt drive can compete with Luxman PD-444 designed for two tonearms in a superveavy plinth, or with Denon DP80 and coreless Victor TT-101 ???

P.S.

As much as i hate $15k modern cartridges, i hate those $30k belt drives too, i have no idea who’s buying them.

Technics charge for an SP-10R with coreless motor just $9k, even this big number is a bargain compared to many high-end belt drives on the market.

And SL-1200G is a bargain at $4k with the same coreless DD motor.

One thing that tends to be overlooked in this endless debate is that belt drive is more economically viable for the "cottage industry" turntable manufacturer.

A lot of the, in my view, baseless criticism of direct drive goes back to the 70s/80s when there was something of a smear campaign to promote certain British belt drive models against Japanese direct drives.

The truth was that the combined profits of all the cottage industry manufacturers back then wouldn’t account for a fraction of the turntable R&D costs of a company like Technics at the time.

VPI’s recent introduction of a very pricey, and I’m sure very great, DD model confirms that small manufacturers can only entertain this type of technology at prices way above what most people would find affordable.

As for any harshness in the mid range, I’ve never heard this in my own Technics SL1600 Mk2, though I did get a massive improvement in overall sound quality by fitting a KABusa silicone damper to the arm and sitting the deck on Audio Technica AT-605 feet. DD is no different from belt drive in that it can be tweaked in a number of ways.

Ultimately everyone must decide which type of turntable is best for them. There are no rights and wrongs, just opinions.

Use your ears...

I'm still in business  but not taking orders currently. The tables are difficult  to manufacture  and I am looking into ways to simplify a few procedures. Actually  my table has little in common with the Trans Fi. Sorry. Lol ( but he makes great gear so no offense)!

@chakster 

You really should get use to adding to your Japanese DD obsession diatribes with the caveat...."in your opinion"...not everyone does or is required to be that narrow of mind and sight to enjoy their music , played back their way. Some folks don't want to have to build a massive plinth and modifications to motor drives that actually sound terrible without that expense. So they really are in many cases incomplete for some. I own all drives. They all have as I said before, their own strengths and weaknesses,  their own sound which for some, that sound is the preference THEY choose. All the ranting and knocking down of others choices and labeling what they choose as cheap junk and yours as the best choice for all, doesn't make it so. It makes you come off as unable to allow let alone even entertain the fact others choose for their needs and wants and don't really care about what you or anyone else claims as fact.
Its just your opinion,  and that I respect and your entitled to it.
You just need to realize your not in any way entitled to belittle or force your narrow view of things on others as gospel. They are also entitled to have the right to their own opinion and it be respected as such..... till your given the official title of The authority on turntables. ...it's just your opinion.  The nice thing about opinions when respected, people can absorb and learn new things. Thats how an open mind and an open forum works. When it parades opinions as fact with personal jabs it becomes something less functional and less knowledge is willingly shared and those that push their opinions often don't even know the experience they are shutting themselves away from .....