Belt vs. Direct Drive

[intlplby]

i am looking to buy my first vinyl rig (TT + phono preamp)

i understand that belt driven is the preferred hi-fi vinyl set-up, but I would like to mess around with some DJing and from what i understand direct drive is better for DJing


any thoughts, ideas recommendations?

 

[steam3642]

If your looking to do a bit of scratching and and mixing then a direct drive is the way to go, if you just want to play the odd track or start to finish then belt drive will be fine , technics 1200 direct drive is the most used dj deck around due to its bomb proof build and reliability but is a bit on the dear side ,if you want a good starter direct drive turntable stanton make the str-8-30 direct drive , on sound quality the belt drive is known to be better due to the moter not being directly mounted to the platter, also the tone arm and cartridge play a major part in the type of sond produced.

 

[adhoc]

iirc belts are generally held in higher regard than direct-drivens because direct-drivens are able to compensate less for (inescapable) continuously occuring minor variations in motor rotational speed.

EDIT: forgot to mention iirc that these variations in rotational speed lead directly to wow and flutter during playback. not fun.

 

[spwal]

belt drive cdps are a pain in the ass and expensive to service. not sure how it works in the TT world...

 

[adhoc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spwal belt drive cdps are a pain in the ass and expensive to service. not sure how it works in the TT world...

i've heard of people having problems with the tension (gradual stretching) of their TT belts before.

however as to whether this is something limited to lower-end TTs, i'm not sure.

 

[kentamcolin]

A belt driven table, having the platter isolated from the motor, would not be able to transfer motor noise to the signal path. I think most if not all high end tables today are belt driven. I myself would be curious how a higher end Denon direct drive, for instance, from the 80's would compare to a $300-$500 belt driven table of today. I think a lot depends on your downstream gear. You would better be able to hear a difference if you had very high quality, transparent amps, cables etc. With simply "decent" gear my guess is that it would be hard to tell at all.

 

[intlplby]

are there any hi-fi quality direct drives

anything better than the technics 1200

 

[intlplby]

i found someone who is selling their Sota Comet with RB250 for $500


i think i might take it.


what is the going used price on a Sota Comet?

what cartrige is recommended?

how much is it to upgrade the tone arm?

how does it compare to the MMF-5

 

[Jose Garcia]

Maybe this could be useful as a Direct Drice explanation on the Technics DDs. www.kabusa.com has some interesting mods to these units as well...

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vin...es/332231.html

Jose.

 

[intlplby]

if i go for a 1210 M5G what mods can be done to bring it to hi-fi quality?

are there better cartriges? are there better tone arms available?

anything else i should know

 

[Jose Garcia]

Give a call to Kevin at www.kabusa.com. I have a friend who owns a Technics 1200 ( on stereoids, as he call it) which was modified by Kevin. They usually add an external power supply with increased capacitance, liquid damper , better internal cabling , an improved mat , damping, etc....

I'm not associated with Kabusa, it's just that Kevin carries everything from Technics and his site is very informative on tweaks and modifications. I was inclined to send the service manual of my JVC QL-Y66F (DD) so he can verified it's power requirements and add an external power supply. Haven't done that yet...I include a picture of my TT ( 1981)...

Jose.

 

[stuartr]

I hate to be a downer, but I don't think scratching and audiophile tables really mix, as it were... The hi fi tables are built to get the best sound possible; they are not built to stand up to punishment. The arms are often very light, without extremely strong resistance to tracking forces. The cartridges are MUCH more fragile than a DJ cartridge. I have an MMF9, and I know that if I started scratching with it, it would fall apart in a matter of minutes. If you want to have a record player that you can scratch with, you are going to have to get one that is made for a DJ and hope that it satisfies your listening requirements, or you can buy a very cheap deck to experiment scratching with and buy an audiophile turntable.

 

[fliz]

get a pair of 1200s. the build quality is unbeatable, will fullfill all your DJing needs, and there are a whole slew of audiophile mods that can be done to them.

for starters:

silver litz tonarm wire.

outboard powersupply

vibration isolation footers

and any expensive tonearm (this will require research as to which ones don't mind being used for DJing purposes)

cartridges are your only place where you're completely screwed. you need a needle that tracks well in order to cue up a record, scratch, transform, or pretty much anything that a dj does. audiophile cartridges CANNOT be used for DJing... you can solve that simply by having one NICE cartridge for when you want to listen to music non-interactively as an audiophile, and a pair of DJ cartridges for when you want to play.

f

 

[intlplby]

how big of a sound fidelity is there between a well set up 1200 and an MMF-5 for example?