Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Denon's 16-pole, 12-coil brushless DC motor brings the diecast alloy platter up to speed within 1 second, the inertia a claimed 382kg/cm2. As anticipated (hoped), speed stability is excellent as illustrated by the sharpness of the main W&F peak [see Graph 1, below]. Absolute speed accuracy is bang on target (within ±0.01%), peak wow is a very low 0.01% and higher-rate flutter comes in at 0.04% courtesy of minor sidebands at ±10Hz and ±15Hz. Spectral analysis reveals no obvious resonances attributable either to the motor or other structural components while the through-spindle rumble comes home at a very low –69.9dB (DIN B-wtd). The heavy rubber mat brings additional damping, reducing the through-groove rumble and noise to just –73.9dB – this is up with the very best decks available and puts paid to any suggestion of 'cogging' noise that might have afflicted some 'AC-driven' 1970/'80s direct-drive decks.

The partnering statically balanced, 9.6in S-shaped tonearm is designed to 'suppress vibration' and, indeed, the combination of its distributed counterweight and lossy coupling of the tube to the main bearing has deferred the main resonance to a very high 360Hz – at the expense of rigidity at the 'cartridge end'. The subsequent resonance at 1.1kHz is either a harmonic or twisting mode. While straight tonearm tubes typically bend in the 60Hz-200Hz region, depending on length, materials and construction, S-shaped arms necessary exhibit a more complex series of bending and torsional modes, so Denon's lightweight tube bucks the trend. Finally, while friction is slightly higher in the vertical plane at 30mg the 'dial up' counterweight is precisely calibrated, over-reading by just 4% (0.96g at 1g and 1.92g at 2g). PM