HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Having tried many turntables during my hifi obsession most of which were belt drive it’s only been a few years that I’ve come to appreciate direct drive, more specifically quartz lock turntables.
Does anyone else use a direct drive as their main rig?
I have a late 70 / early 80s Hitachi with additional platter and modified tone arm wand converted to manual operation.
My diy head wants to re plinth it and use a longer ?12” arm.
My research seems to favour a Denon or JVC units with a few from Akai and some really rare Yamaha tables
Please share your experiences and current DD set up- do u favour quartz lock or not?
Cheers peter

I've been very happy with my EMT 950 German direct drive, for the price I paid for it.

There are other direct drives that I've liked a lot for the prices the owners paid for them. There are loads of direct drives that are worth buying for the right money. And not worth it for the wrong money.

My understanding, based on my experience, as well as the experience of people whose judgement I trust, is that quartz or non quartz is less important than whether the turntable is fully working to manufacturer's specs and whether it has good engineering content to it - mainly from the bearing and motor quality. And what arm, cart, phono amplification, turntable support and location it has.

One thing that's interesting is that EMT found that with their idler turntables, a massive platter with a large flywheel effect sounded best. With their DD a lighter platter sounded best. So that's what they went with. It was something that suprised them at the time they were developing direct drive. For them pragmatism / empiricism ruled over dogmatism.

Lindsayt wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 3:00 pm
One thing that's interesting is that EMT found that with their idler turntables, a massive platter with a large flywheel effect sounded best. With their DD a lighter platter sounded best. So that's what they went with. It was something that suprised them at the time they were developing direct drive. For them pragmatism / empiricism ruled over dogmatism.

Yes that is Interesting

The Doc steered me in the direction of the PIoneer PL71. I currently own 2 of them and they are very nice indeed. There are some good belt drives out there (I like the ceramic platter Regas) but the PL71 just sounds so right.

I have had loads of dd decks, currently i have the jvc ql-y5f and the jbe which uses a matsushita mkl15b motor. Lots of those motors around, in lots of kenwood and trio decks and the technics sl2000. Also in the pioneer pl520 and similar. That motor is a self contained motor, quartzlock and other gubbins can be added externally. Trio used an optical sensor that counted the holes in a disc on the top to control speed. Kind of like an abs sensor.
Jvc motor units are my preferred units, the tt71 is a cracker. Denon dp decks are usually very good, the dp47 is on my list if the jvc packs up as i want a fully auto deck that doesnt use cogs and linkages. Had a dp2550 for a while that used a tape head to count magnetic stripes on the inside of the platter. Very good unit too.
Jvc made the goldmund motors, and the lad dj decks used jvc motors. They are brilliant if you can get one, they have a good jelco arm on them too.
Kenwood kd 990 is utterly superb if you can find one, as is the pioneer pl l1000. Another one i should not have got rid of

Ultimate for me is a trio lo7d, id have to sell alot of lencos though.......
Sony decks... dunno really ive only ever had a ps11 which was passable

Did you have a Kenwood kd990 Ant? If so why haven't you still got it?

It was the pioneer pl l1000 that i had and shouldnt have got rid of
A friend of mine has the kenwood, i keep trying to buy it off him but he keeps saying no......

Latteman wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 2:08 pm My research seems to favour a Denon or JVC units with a few from Akai and some really rare Yamaha tables
Please share your experiences and current DD set up- do u favour quartz lock or not?

I've had 3 DD turntables, Kenwood KD650, KD750 and an Akai something or other. The Akai looks good, but no Quartz Lock and ho-hum build quality. Of those 2 omissions i think the build quality is probably more important.

The Kenwoods are remarkable, but beware the arms. They can be good if you rebuilt the bearings. Stock, the bearing surfaces are rubbish and they are almost always improperly adjusted. Once sorted out, they are as good as anything else i've tried, build quality and materials are second to none (magnesium alloy arm tubes, machined plated brass and stainless steel bits, litz wires etc).

I was looking at a couple of decks from Akai- an AP 206 & AP 306. They look decent on photos
There is a Harksound hs 610 locally but info is rare

My first DD turntable was a Sony I'd picked up at a second hand shop for £30-40 in early 90's. It had the strobe light and a varispeed knob. I didn't really know what I had at the time and didn't have it long before buying a new Dual belt drive deck. Wish I'd hung onto the Sony, Ah well.

Years later after my AR deck died, a move to Technics SL1210 mk2 got me hooked to quartz Direct Drive. I'm on my second and had it reconditioned last year by technics service/ Dansette. With that and the Jelco headshell + AT mm cartridge records sound great. I find the standard Technics tonearm works very well.