Let me start this article with one of my favorite motivational sayings:

Everyone said it couldn’t be done! But then someone came along who didn’t know that —and just did it.

But we’ll get to that later. I would like to extend my blog writing about analogue music sources. This applies to both equipment and outstanding recordings. Vinyl records have been my great passion for decades. I think that many people strive for optimizing their own HiFi equipment over the years. The most important component in this context is of course the record player or many say simply turntable. This involves three essential components: the turntable itself (just spinning the records with constant speed), the tonearm and the cartridge. There are only a few manufacturers who produce these three components themselves and then also offer a complete product that can play at the highest level. Therefore, this hobby is often about putting together the best components yourself. This may also be a reason why it never gets boring, because combining different setups can produce very different sound results. For people who have nothing to do with this hobby, it may seem strange that there are a variety of turntables available for purchase, and the only features is to rotate the record at a constant speed and to provide the option of mounting different tonearms. I know three different drive methods to spin the platter: belt drive, rim drive, direct drive. For decades I have always used belt drives units. The belt provides a very good isolation to motor noise but it’s own flexibility is a problem when it comes to speed stability and dynamics and the belt needs to be replaced regularly. So already a while ago I decided to replace my belt drive turntable with a direct drive. I had also decided that it would be my “last” turntable. I know what some people are thinking now and I have to admit that they might be right. You tell this yourself as justification and in the end things turn out differently…

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