Gentlemen,
The platter for vacuum equipped Basis turntables also has the four veins as Mike describes for his Rockport. I can't imaging playing warped LPs without a "proper" vacuum hold down system. Even my most warped LPs have zero give under them when the vacuum hold down system is engaged. Every LP is tightly coupled to the platter.
I agree with Albert that better control over speed stability pays big dividends which is why I invested a considerable sum of money into the Basis Synchro-Wave power supply and requisite mods to the stock motor.
I have spent a fair amount of time with a Continuum Caliburn and Cobra combination that was properly setup and dialed in (by the designer no less) and the science behind each design/engineering choice can clearly be heard in that case.
At the end of the day each approach (direct drive vs belt drive, servo controlled/corrected motor versus obsessive engineering tolerances, linear tracking tonearm versus pivoted tonearm, unipivot versus gimbal bearings, air bearing versus mechanically grounded bearing, etc) has its own set of strengths and weaknesses which just goes to show that there are many paths to satisfaction.
I would be willing to bet that the audible (and measurable) differences between any two pairs of loudspeakers, in room, is far greater than the sonic difference between any two competently designed analog front ends regardless of design choice.
Aaron
