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From: ccrse@ucdavis.UUCP (Steve Ehrhardt)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: re: re: re: turntable controversy
Message-ID: <340@ucdavis.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 8-Jul-85 13:33:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucdavis.340
Posted: Mon Jul  8 13:33:50 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 9-Jul-85 06:39:43 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: University of California, Davis
Lines: 30

> The station I used to work for Used turntables driven by a fairly large
> synchronous hysteresis motor and an idler wheel.  They were reasonably
> quiet, started quickly, and had plenty of torque for slipping.
> 
> I haven't seen any direct drive turntables with anywhere near the
> torque that is needed for broadcast disk jockey use.

Most of the stations that I have seen/worked in still used idler wheel
tables.  I wouldn't accuse any of them of being particularly quiet,
though.  Some were mounted in cabinets that contained 100+ lbs of sand
to damp out the rumble.  (I'm not certain how that was supposed to work,
but that's what I was told it was for...)

The only direct-drive turntable that I have seen used in broadcasting
is the Technics SP-10.  Only a comparatively few stations are quality-
conscious enough to lay out the kind of money that one of those costs.
I think that they're over $2,000 apiece now, less arm.  They have more
than enough torque for the job, though, and come up to speed almost
immediately from a standing start.

As regards what I think was the original question, I've always been under
the impression that it was easier (and cheaper) to build a good belt-
drive turntable than it was to build a good direct-drive table.  The
direct-drive tables appear to be most competitive in terms of performance
for the money in the lower end of the mid-price range, then lose out to
belt-drive again above that. 

On a related topic, someone once told me that direct-drive turntables
end to become more rumble-prone with age.  In other words, their performance
deteriorates over time.  Can anyone comfirm or deny this?