The force of a belt, meanwhile, could pull the main bearing to one side, generating more noise. A loose bearing will have differing negative effects for each drive setup.įor direct, the spindle could be all at sea, effectively making the record into a moving target for your stylus and leading to less accurate tracking. That’s where a lot of additional cost for your deck accrues – manufacturers spend the necessary time machining components as precisely as possible.Įqually important is the machining of the main bearing.
That can be exacerbated if either the belt is not of the same thickness all the way round, or the spindle or platter is not machined to be perfectly cylindrical. That lessening of motor interference, in a well manufactured belt-drive turntable at least, will feed into most aspects of the eventual sound – because the cartridge is more easily able to track the information etched into the groove of your record.īut because the belt can only be so taut (and factoring in the necessary give for it to move freely round the platter and pulley spindle), in theory rotation speed is not quite as consistently accurate, due to stretch and potential slipping. Isolating the motor in a belt drive configuration sidesteps that issue somewhat - any vibrations are partially damped by the presence of the rubber belt. Technics is releasing a new version of the SP-10, the direct drive turntable designed by Shuichi Obata in 1969. So there's inevitably a degree of distortion added to the final performance.
However, because the platter is attached to the motor, vibrations are fed directly from the latter to the former – which are of course then transmitted to the cartridge. It means a faster start-up speed and less vulnerability to extraneous force (such as the weight of the stylus as it tracks the groove).īecause it reaches the correct speed so rapidly it’s largely the domain of DJs (as rapidly became clear following its invention by Matsushita engineer Shuichi Obata in 1969) – it allows them to stop and, effectively, manually rewind vinyl as they attempt to align the beats coming from two decks. In a sense it’s about a manufacturer deciding which method’s shortcomings it’s easier to combat while making the most of its inherent talents.ĭirect drive turntables’ main fortes are linked largely to their higher torque. Of course, if either means of driving a turntable were without caveat, there’d be no need for the other – but each is compromised as much as it has its strengths. Why would a company favour one over the other? Belt drive 'tables, on the other hand, have the motor offset – and wrapped around the spindle is a thin belt, almost always made from rubber, which hugs the main platter and rotates it like a pulley.