Looking for ACCURATE SPEED turntable/tonearm combo

If you want solid accuracy in a belt drive a Rega P5 or even a P3-24 with the added PSU will fit the bill and have an arm good enough for any cartridge up to nose bleed territory.

Ketchup,

I think a visualization of strobe is much too crude an instrument to detect transient speed variations caused by modulations in stylus drag. However, it's not too difficult to hear an obvious difference if your belt drive TT allows switching between different belt materials & tensions.

I have an Oracle Delphi III that I compare to a VPI TNT with soft belts and thread drive on this point. The VPI has a flywheel which VPI claims is equivalent in effect to a 100 lb. platter. However the combination of flywheel and soft rubber belts does not equal a relatively inelastic tread sans flywheel in terms of focus, dynamics, and LF control. In this case, the theory that the inertial mass of a flywheel improves stability is compromised by the practice of using a sloppy rubber belt to drive the flywheel. Doubtless a massive platter is better. But even in this case physics prescribes that small forces introduced by changes in stylus drag into the large inertial mass, must manifest as a change in platter speed. The only way to hear this taking place is to control all variables except for belt material and tension. With the Oracle the situation is further complicated by lateral movement in the suspension of the lightly sprung plinth.

Im with jb53 here, if you dont care for a technics the denon is a great choice. You wont beat the japanese direct drives for speed accuracy no matter how much you spend. I own (owned) a stable of high end tts and have compared them directly to my sl 1700 I got off ebay for $49. Lets just say that even though I covet my big boys I can listen to the technics for hours and not miss them. I chucked a stradivari on the 1700's stock arm and was blown away with how good it sounded, and it lifts the arm at the end of play! I have considered selling everything else and keeping the technics. Spend your dough on a great cartridge and phono pre mabey some fancy cables and feel good falling asleep to great sound knowing your rig will put itself to bed at the end of the side.

Rccc and the others are right. Buy the Rega P5, but don't come back to complain when you see strobe drift.

Like others here, I have dropped 7K and more on a high end LP play back units. They sounded good; looked ultra sexy, but the KAB blew them out of the water on speed accuracy. and if you opt for the cardas rewire and KAB dampener, the Technics gets really close to the sonics of the high end tables, and you get the rock solid speed.

While some Analog folks prefer the maple block, I'd suggest heading down to your local Granite counter top guy and have him cut you a custom piece of granite for your Table stand. Will cost you 125-150 bucks, with cutting and polished edges and will make a major improvement.

Ketchup,

As Dgarretson said, transient-induced speed variations are unlikely to be visible with a strobe. Our strobe wouldn't pick up most of them, though it's more resolving than the KAB (Paul built it in a CAD program). We're talking about time shifts lasting only as long as a single beat.

MarkD51,
For better or worse, we don't have to listen intently or "try" to hear this. We just do. We don't find this sensitivity diminishes our enjoyment of music played well. I believe it may enhance it. We have thousands of LP's we enjoy hearing repeatedly, though I admit we've heard many othes we'd gladly use for driveway resurfacing material. ;-)

BTW, a heavier platter does not eliminate speed variations from stylus drag. Newton forbade that when he discovered the laws of motion. All else being equal, a platter with higher rotational inertia lowers the frequency and reduces the amplitude of speed shifts. But it can't eliminate them.

Whether they're audible is up to the ears doing the listening. We hear them despite our 35 lb. platter if something's not right, or when testing an inferior belt material. The improvements we described and others confirmed on the "Upgrade for 1/2" mylar belt" thread demonstrate this beyond any doubt. Most users on that thread have heavy platters, but they have no difficulty hearing differences in speed stability made by a belt change.