Some tables have soul and some not

As an atheist, this soul topic is rather pointless to me but I understand the poetic attraction of it. A turntable or any hardware is just a product, a thing, made by people and its design and mechanism reflect the mind of its maker. But very often, I believe, the designers themselves are clueless. Sometimes, it's just a happy accident. Sometimes not. I think most sonic traits or inherent qualities are quantifiable if we look close enough...

To me, the degree of "soul" or soulfulness in a turntable depends on the motor and the compliance of the interface, be it a belt, an idler wheel, or magnetic force. So the degree of three major components, Torque, Compliance, and Cogging play into the overall sound or tonal character of a turntable. Hypothetically, if we have several turntables using the same material and parts, how a designer dial up or down these three things will determine the majority of the sound in each table. Material, mass, isolation, vibration control, machining tolerance, execution, etc... fill up the rest of the recipe.

I think the motor is the heart of a turntable. Your mileage or soul-meter may vary.

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Almost everything about this hobby is wildly subjective. That's why an exit point was so easy to find for me. Just pick the set of colorations and sound that you like, then play your music and smile.

Linn would always talk about "pace" and "musicality." Assuming that a turntable's speed is accurate, the factors that will have an effect on what you hear are mechanical, rather that ephemeral.

A well-damped, heavy turntable can have silent soundstages and killer bass, because of that immense foundation. But I just don't believe that any turntable plays music, assuming that speed and setup are accurate, better than any other. The notion of "soul" is unfathomable to me.

I found that as I tried to increase the damping of my TT's plinth I gained clarity but lost the "soul". Happily, I did find a balanced place where I was able to damp the plinth and retain the soul of the music. From this I would say that overdamping anything can remove the sould from the music.

Have you ever heard an overdamped room. It just doesn't sound natural. I think the same applies to components. You can reduce vibrations and unnecessary jiggly stuff, but if you go too far it starts to sound dry and uninvolving.

Is this distortion or coloration? Yeah, probably, but it is far more enjoyable than an over detailed, dry, unforgiving and joyless sound.

Soul = Good Vibrations!?

A turntable cannot have soul (soul, not A soul); it is a machine. Music has soul. Some turntables reproduce more of the soul of a musical performance than other turntables because they are better machines; they let more of the rhythmic nuance in a performance be heard undistorted. Rhythm is where the soul of music lies.