2. analog
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Table speed

I heard an interesting fact from a musician friend. He calculated that if a turntable ran 1% fast, it would be like hearing a guitar note 1/6 sharp, quite easy to hear. I play guitar and use quarter bends all the time. Just a little less. This makes me all the more concerned about speed. Now in all fairness, if I wasn't comparing it to something or let's say, playing along with a perfectly tuned guitar, I may not be able to tell. My ear isn't good enough to simply say, that is fast, but knowing this does cause some concern in my search for a turntable. Being of German heritage, I naturally gravitate toward order and perfection. (joke) Just thought I would pass this on, and once again, I am not looking for an argument, but If anyone sees it differntly from my friends assesment, please let me know. Thank you and thanks for a great forum. There is a wealth of information here that I will use and try to contribute to in my own humble way.

Rick
richardtrapp2a31
richingoth
326 posts
 
FYI here is some history on atomic clock standards at NIST formally NBS.
http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/cesium/atomichistory.htm

Rich
pbb
1,140 posts
 
Buzz-Feiten...or is that too close to digital?
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Belt drive tables, whatever their other virtues, can easily run fast or slow because of diameter error of the drive pulley and/or belt slippage. Of course in the best tables the error is minimal.

Quartz clock controlled direct drive tables, whatever their problems may be, inherently run at correct speed. Consider that your $25 Timex watch keeps time to a few seconds per year. What's that in percent?

Interestingly, there is a clock that can be incorporated in a piece of equipment that has absolutely no error at all! In a Missile Fire Control System that we designed, serious consideration was given to incorporating a Cesium Vapor Clock which, was then the NBS definition of time. Cost would have been about $100,000, a relatively small sum in context of the entire Fire Control System. Error due to the clock would have been zero, by definition. However, for much less money we used a quartz crystal clock system which is so close to perfect that it doesn't matter.
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