USB Turntable Drive Systems

There are three common types of turntable drives. Each of them uses some kind of speed regulating mechanism, to keep the playing speed as constant as possible. These are discussed as follows:

• Belt-Drive: This is the most basic turntable drive, which makes use of a low-speed motor with a pulley on it. It has a rubber belt that goes around the motor pulley and the outer or inner rim of the lower portion of the platter. The main benefit of such a drive is that it is quiet and the motor does not have any acoustic impact on the turntable’s audio output signal. The disadvantage is that the rubber belt deteriorates over time or from heavy-duty use and needs to be replaced. Most of the modern “audiophile” turntables are belt-driven.

• Idler Wheel-Drive: This turntable drive system is usually found in record changers, and uses a high-speed motor with a stepped pulley on it. A so called idler wheel moves on the inner rim of the platter and the motor pulley, thus putting the platter into motion. Until the 1980s, the idler-wheel drive was the most common on turntables, except for higher-end audiophile models.
• Direct-Drive: This is the most sophisticated type of drive, which was invented by Technics. It uses an electronically controlled motor, that sits directly under the platter and moves the spindle on which the platter resides.