Panasonic exhibited a direct drive analog turntable prototype equipped with a newly developed direct drive motor at the IFA 2015 trade fair. Panasonic is accelerating further development of this technology with a view to market launch in 2016 under the Technics hi-fi audio brand.
In conventional analog turntables, sound quality degradation caused by tiny vibrations of the motor and rotational speed fluctuations has been a major challenge. To overcome this challenge and assure smooth, highly-stable rotation, Panasonic has developed a new direct drive motor and redesigned high-precision motor control technology. This makes it possible to reproduce the warm sound and subtle nuances of musical expression engraved in the analog record grooves.
The newly-developed direct drive motor has the following features:
- Coreless stator design that eliminates cogging
- Twin rotors that reduce bearing load and minimize tiny rotational fluctuations (wow & flutter), while maintaining high torque
- Oil impregnated high-precision bearings that minimize unwanted vibrations during rotation
The redesigned direct drive motor control technology involves the following:
- Spindle motor control technology that switches the stator winding drive mode according to operating conditions to provide both high starting torque and high rotational stability
- Adaptive rotational control technology that achieves optimized compensation according to precision rotational position detection and load fluctuation factors
