Originally Posted by
Ammonite Acoustics
The Kenwood's arm is much better than its tacky 1980s looks might suggest; indeed it is probably better than the Technics arm, but I've never done that comparison. But, your observations about the Technics' 'slightly edgy sound' are most likely a reflection of its drive system - Technics themselves admitted that the old direct drive system had inherent 'cogging' and their new motor designs solve that. Funnily enough, Technics have now adopted the same overlapping flat-wound motor coil topology that Kenwood (and others) used long ago, to very good effect in your deck (and my KD-990). The old Technics cogging was clearly seen on the polar speed plots done by PaulR over at PFM, which I can't find for the moment. That cogging is a form of jitter which is not measurable by normal W&F techniques, but the tiny rotational stability variations are easily picked up by the human auditory system; and time purity is a key component of musical enjoyment. Your Kenwood does not suffer from such time anomalies and if it performs like mine is by any standard a superb musical deck that would most likely give some very expensive high-end turntables of today a lesson in playing music.