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Surprised by Denon direct drive!

C

cupples

pfm Member
I'm just after selling my Rega P8 to pay for a new kitchen (the joys...) and the plan was to pull out an old Denon DP2500 which I picked up a few months ago for £150, along with a rewired R200 tonearm, and stick the Audio Technica ART9 on it from the P8 to tide me over.
Well. I was not prepared for the tight bass, rhythmic drive and pitch perfection! This setup absolutely kills the P8 for speed stability! I've just accepted a little bit of instability with sustained piano notes, choral works and sustained chords on belt drives that I've had in the past as being part of the joys of vinyl, and maybe I'm just very sensitive to these things due to a musical background, but I was impressed! Inner grooves on Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years are rock solid, and long sustained chords on Solti's recording of Holst's Planet Suite are very nearly perfect!
Direct drive, where have you been all my life??
 
I am tempted by the look of those "flying saucer" Denons, but having an Oracle Delphi and a PTP6 Lenco, I think my wife might notice another one. But I could always tell her it completes the set; belt, idler and direct drive! :D
EDIT: she just read this post and the reaction was as expected. Maybe she will forget in a while? ;)
 
freefallrob said:
You wouldn’t be the first to think this! Any downsides you can hear?
Click to expand...
maybe not just as spacious and airy as the P8, or as light-footed, but there are further benefits - I was going to move on my EL34 SET as I didn't think it had enough juice for my big Altecs, and enough grip on the bass, but the Denon has made a big difference, so much so that I'm actually happy with the SET now...
 
Oh yes, the Japcrap syndrome, orchestrated by Linn et al… only the Japanese could ever come up with such sophisticated decks. Rubber bands were used for their starter decks :D
Here in France many record sellers had Denons with top Beyer headphones.
 
Thorens used a Swiss Papst motor, unlike Linn and Rega which was much better but more expensive. B&O also used it in his Beogram 4000.
Japanese belters (The Expanse fan here) used also much better Panasonic regulated brushed servo motors. Quality was high there too.
 
Rega/ Linn could of knocked one of these out in a few hours

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denon_dp-100m_03.jpg
 
Hey, it's got it's own extractor fan! Maybe I could get that one for the kitchen, and the wife wouldn't notice...
 
cupples said:
This setup absolutely kills the P8 for speed stability! I've just accepted a little bit of instability with sustained piano notes, choral works and sustained chords on belt drives
Click to expand...

No first hand experience with the P8 but I'd be surprised you could hear flutter on a decent belt drive turntable with a heavy platter. Back in the early days, I could detect "hunting" with DD turntables that just wasn't there with a decent belt drive. Modern DDs may have cured this (eg the 124DD?) but I suspect your problem was with the P8.
 
Beobloke said:
As someone once asked me - "If the best way to spin a platter is really with a small Philips motor and a rubber band, why did the Japanese spend so much R&D money designing high-tech direct drive systems?"

I simply told him he'd answered his own question.
Click to expand...

the downside to these japanese exotica is some people are shit scared to turn them on in case they go bang! :D
 
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