I haven't heard the Technics so am interested to know what you hear. If the Ariston doesn't work out I'll be looking for another deck to mount the SME arm on. BTW, if a Hayden motor works and it is similar to the AR, ARGuy on E-Bay sells a new motor and power supply for about $60. I did have a Kenwood KD-650 way back when which was direct drive and found it sounded "good" but the Kenwood arm had a poor bearing. My own TT oddysey ran from the usual college Lab 80 to the Kenwood to AR-XA to HW-19 III. That last was 15 years ago.