Belt drive / Direct drive turntables, Which one???

0:00 This red bit is an elastic band, O

Alright folks, in this video what I'm going to do is describe to you the difference between direct drive and belt drive turntables. Okay, now then, belt drive turntable. Okay, now then, what I want you to consider is this. This is the platter, this is where you will actually put your record on here, okay? Now with most belt drive turntables, this actual element here, this spindle here, is just situated in a slot. Then, I mean this is a very basic example by the way, and then on the actual platter spindle you'll have, it's almost like there's a wheel here. Now this red bit is an elastic band, OK? Now the elastic band isn't that long, again this is very basic. The elastic band then will go around another wheel and that wheel is attached to a motor. In that motor there is a magnet or magnets, coils etc.

0:54 Positive and negative terminal going to that motor

Positive and negative terminal going to that motor. So what happens is basically this, the power goes into the motor, the motor inside here turns, turning this spindle, turning this wheel, turning this elastic band, turning this wheel, turning this spindle, turning the platter. So from, again not meaning to go into depth, from a physics point of view, you have motion here, you have motion around the elastic band, motion pushing this here, And pushing the platter. Now then, what can happen here is that over a period of time this elastic band, like the same as a belt on a car, on a vehicle, will eventually start to wear away the actual band and eventually it will start to pull and of course that's when you start having problems. Plus the fact if all of a sudden you press start, bang, on your turntable the motor in a fraction of a second will start up.

But then the elastic band in a fraction of a second after that will start up. And then again in another fraction of a second, the platter will start to turn. You do have a difference in time from the time you press that button to the time that platter starts. That is the basic principle behind belt drive. Now then, direct drive and Technics were the first ones to do it and they patented it. The idea is simply this. If you ever take The platter off your Technics SL1200 turntable, you'll notice something like this. You'll notice again the hole there is just the hole inside the platter. You'll notice on the underside of the platter you've got some magnets and the actual magnet is in a circle like so. And that there is the hole inside the centre of your platter. The hole will fit in here. Now here you have the coils wrapped around the spindle.

2:51 The magnets go either side

This twists, OK? Then that will fit through here. The magnets go either side. Now basically direct drive is simply this. This is the motor. That's one half of the motor. That's the other half. Here's the coil wrapped around here. The electricity or the power is put inside here and inside here. As soon as the platter is put on here and you press start, instead of like here, Thank you for watching, practice and enjoy. Take it easy.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.