A Copernican View of the Turntable System

Dear Ct0517, sorry - I was serious ! Life can be kind .... sometimes. But it took me a long time to find that particular girl.
Kind of copernican journey in itself....;-) .... much harder than audio - at least as rewarding.
Cheers.
D.

Whilst researching the Rockport Sirius III I came across this treatise written by Peter Moncreif of the International Audio Review which for me, is the best description of the 'job' (and difficulties thereof) of the turntable I have ever read.
BELT VS DD
The most stunning point he made......one which never occurred to me......was that the record itself provided only 50% of the information required to produce the music's waveform......Amplitude. The other 50% required.....the Time Domain....is provided by the turntable.
This is an unarguable fact and thus puts, I believe, the turntable firmly into the 'software' category of the analogue chain rather than in the 'Hardware' category where resides the arm-base (or pod), the arm, headshell, cables and cartridge?

Halcro,

I'm not sure if his argument about the sole role of the tt (by which he champions the Sirius III) does actually move it into the 'software' domain. Anyway, not to claim that Moncrief had any axe to grind but respected former Rockport owners self-confessed having sold their Sirius III tt's to get a Technics DD.

Spectacular speed consistency and wow and flutter control are all demonstrable on other tt's than the Rockport: not to mention an unarguable ability to avoid sounding 'grundgy and veiled'. My personal experience also denies me the ability to accept many of his a+b=c conclusions, as pursuasive as these often appear.

Just my two pence worth

As always

Dear Halcro, what is missed - almost entirely - in the whole discussion about turntable drive mechanism, is the one paramount conditio qua non that the movement of the record shall be absolute.
This does - a priori - eliminate ANY drive, which features speed control. Furthermore it disqualifies ANY drive where the transmission features ANY elongation.
It however still leaves the turntable in the "hardware" category....;-) ...
Cheers,
D.

Hi Dgob,
I think you re-read the bit about 'speed consistency' and wow and flutter figures.
Peter Moncreif agrees with you that these 'specifications' are easily attained but generally useless as they are 'averaged'?
It is very easy to obtain 'average' speed consistency but it is the 'instantaneous' deviations to speed caused by complex musical passages and their affect on the stylus which he states is extremely difficult to deal with?
I believe that Mike Lavigne kept his Sirius III alongside his SP10MkIII for quite a while before selling it?
Whilst the Rockport was staggering in its high-frequency performance.....my experience with it showed a lack of bottom end consistency perhaps attributed to its linear-tracking tonearm?
My current experience with the speed control on the Victor TT-101 is changing my perception of the benefits therein and so far.......without concrete refutation of Moncreif's analysis.....much of what he says rings true?
Cheers
Henry