Belt drive or direct drive?

Wow you people are seriously confused about belt drive verse direct drive turntables and what is important. The "majority" of high end turntables are belt driven even when looking at the very best. On the budget side there is no doubt belt drive is the best option. Direct drive turntables have the issue of transferring energy and vibration back to the platter. The platter is directly coupled to the platter, this is not good IF serious attention to detail is taken in addressing this issue. It isnt in budget direct drive models. That is only one of the limitation of lower priced direct drive turntables. Then you have the issue and limitation of the materials being used in most if not all budget direct drive turntables, and the quality of the tonearms used in most direct drive turntables.

There are only a handful of high quality direct drive turntables on the market today, and these would be in the 10's of thousand dollar price point. Even then in comparison to belt drive models you can get better performance at a lower price. So yes Belt drive is the preferred version to purchase.

But choose carefully. Unfortunately there are many cheap and poorly made budget turntables on the market today. These are made from company's who are trying to get in on the analog resurgence and try and steel the sale from those consumers who simply dont know better. yes there are some decent turntables in and around the $300 price range, but honestly for a bit more more like the $500 price range you can get a turntable that will actually sound good and be considered high end by true audiophiles.

I strongly feel that REGA is making the best budget turntables on the market today. This is a British turntable manufacturer who is highly respected in the high end industry and most audiophiles. Not only are they well designed and built they sound excellent. One of the biggest sonic advantages is the tonearms that are equipped on REGA turntables. Even some high end manufacturers use REGA tonearms simply because they are excellent sounding and built.

There are many important factors to understand about buying and playing records. But buying a good turntable can give you a good starting point in attempting to get good sound.

Kevin

40 years high end audio video specialist

It doesn't matter much.

I mostly use idler drive --- usually a Dual 1219 or similar.

Both belt and direct drive are quieter (less rumble) than idler drive,

but I prefer to be able to remove the spindle and perfectly center a disc that is a bit off

rather than have a lower noise floor under the reproduction of something that makes me seasick on land.

Depends on the quality of the turntable. My worst DD was two Numarks that both had clicking sounds. One broken DD was a Sony that had super fast speed. Other than that I bet DD would outlive you before that goes broken. But these are cheap decks.

Audiophiles will spit on direct drives. They should realize that because a $100,000.00+ table that is a belt does not mean every belt drive is better. Of course these people refuse to play or do any tests whatsoever. Unfortunately most audiophiles decide with their eyes instead with their ears. Just talking about people that spend thousands and thousands to millions of dollars.

Well built examples of either last a good long time and do the job. Price and quality of the unit, its tone arm, and cartridge are the realistic issues here. A really good tonearm is made and balance-able to compensate for slightly out of round or less than perfectly flat records. This often makes them look mechanically more complex -which in fact, they are, to handle these issues. They track problem child records better, and wear out grooves less. Because most budget level turntables have poor mats and very light platters (no Mass) they are usually poor quality choices. Just stay well away from idler wheel driven units. DJs like them because they can disengage the idler and fiddle the platter to do scratching and all that barf., or que individual tracks easier. So "pro" doesn't necessarily mean quality. Any unit that produces audible rumble should be returned. Units with heavier platters will benefit from smoother rotation (a matter of moving mass- like a flywheel) and less noise transmission. Because quality turntables are a low volume specialty, they are normally quite pricey. Often a new consumer might want to look for a used one with a solid platter, higher end tonearm and good motor, recondition it, and mount it with a new needle or cartridge.

I would choose belt drive. Direct drives are good if they are new, but as the motor wears down they create more noise, that noise

is then transmitted to the platter and in turn is picked up by the needle. With a belt drive the belt isolates motor noise from the platter...So in a used turntable buy a Belt drive. But in a new model direct drive might be OK...

direct drive is supposed to be better

In a direct-drive turntable, the platter sits directly on the drive motor (often speed-controlled by a quartz-control system, like a fine Swiss watch), which spins at exactly 33 1/3 or 45 RPM—far slower than the motor in either a belt-drive or idler wheel system