Direct Drive turntables

The problems associated with direct-drive were well known to the guys who designed the very best direct-drive turntables of the 1970s and 1980s, which was not exactly the Dark Ages in terms of electronics and engineering. The very best direct-drive tables of those days dealt with the issues in very effective ways. In many cases, their work fell down, if it fell down at all, at the level of plinth design and implementation. Poorly designed plinths account more than anything else for the colorations that one perceives in the mid-level Denon turntables, for one example. With a little ingenuity, one can build much better plinths for these products which mitigates their sonic character. Another source of sonic coloration may be that the built-in motors radiate EMI that can possibly pollute the signal at the cartridge. We now have very effective shielding materials that can eliminate such problems. The DIY effort is well rewarded. The same is true for the best idler drive turntables, despite their dismissal by "Elizabeth". If you want great sound for less money than any comparable belt-drive table, I would encourage you to experiment with top quality direct- or idler-drive turntables of the good old days.

Not all DD are equal. My Lt-30 is magnetically driven and has been superbly upgraded. It is also a linear arm. Generally Elizabeth's opinions have merit, however, not this time.

What Lew said.

The disco days most likely help encourage the direct drive turn tables.The DJ's could back cue.You could manually rotate the platter backwards without worrying about damaging the drive system.Doing that on a belt,or idler drive could cause damage to the drive system.That was the major benefit I know of.♫

I have been an audio enthusiast for 40 years, having owned idler drive, belt drive, and direct drive turntables. I also sold audio in the golden age (mid-'70s) when the DD tables first came out, and have some frame of reference for the strengths and weaknesses of each design. Lately I have been living with an SL1210 M5G for nearly three years now, and have applied various tweaks to address this turntable's shortcomings.

My conclusion? The direct drive mechanism is just fine, and is the best part of the Technics DD 'tables, followed by precise manufacturing and excellent structural rigidity. Its weaknesses are lack of damping and a 30-year-old--that is to say, rudimental--understanding and implementation of vibration control.

This lack of vibration control creates resonances most notably in the upper midrange, that cause glare, compression, and loss of detail wrongly attributed to the DD mechanism.

These vibration shortcomings are easily addressed and inexpensive as well. To wit:
1: The platter rings like a bell. Put a better mat on it. This can be something heavy like sorbothane (I use an Oracle Groove Isolator) or with great damping properties such as the Herbies Way Excellent.
2: The tonearm also rings like a little bell. This is easily fixed for almost nothing: wrap some teflon plumbers tape around the tonearm including the joint where the headshell attaches. NOTE: This fixes that upper midrange glare, and may explain in part why people gush over the improvement of a tonearm swap. The original tonearm ain't too bad--with damping and a better headshell.
3: Get better low level resolution and inner detail with a better damping, more rigid headshell. The ones in the $40-50 range from Sumiko and LPGear (actually sourced from Jelco) make a significant difference.
4. Noise *can* come up the spindle from the drive motor, but: a) Oil the spindle; it almost certainly lost it during shipping and b) Use a record grip, clamp, or weight to dampen any motor noise (there's not much anyway) and control resonances within the LP's vinyl itself.
5: Drain and dissipate the vibration from the chassis. Put on better feet (such as SuperSpikes) and platform them to a cutting board. Isolate the cutting board with silicon gel pads, Vibrapods, or whatever soft absorbent things you want to use.

That pretty much takes care of it. Kludgy? Yeah, a bit, but they're dirt cheap and demonstrate that the direct drive was never at fault, but took the blame for the sound.

Meanwhile, the DD mechanism in a current production Technics turntable provides a level of quiet, speed accuracy, torque, and speed consistency that is not equaled in the belt drive "audiophile-approved" environment until you get into several thousand dollars.

It's a pity that the audiophile industry took this turn. I suspect some may have felt a need to discredit the Japanese direct drive mechanism because it was perceived as a threat to the (primarily) British belt-drive turntable cottage industry. I wish they'd embraced the DD motor, bought 'em by the boatload, and used their engineering to control noise and vibration. I think we'd all be listening to better turntables for less money if the industry had gone that way.