Turntable speed accuracy

Here is a link: Go back up the thread two or three posts of mine, and you will find it. Anyway, there is no need, because I just summed up the story. The oddity is that he claims to be unable to sing a single note but to have a perfect sense of pitch. OTOH, I sing jazz informally and sometimes formally but sensed the tempo error, not the pitch error.

A lot of good jazz singers sing on the low edge of the note, if you know what I mean. (I refer here to real professionals, not me. If I do it, it is a mistake.) It imparts a blue-sy feel. (Examples might be Betty Carter, Chris Connor, Kurt Elling.) Perhaps that is why I was not hearing the pitch error. Kind of like tuning an orchestra to 438Hz instead of 440Hz.

Hi Lewm,

thanks for the reply back and clarification. I have nothing against Lenco tables and was actually looking at buying one as mentioned prior, really just conversation and learning.

That being said at the same time I was shocked when I had asked this seller what I felt was a pretty basic question and the reply back was they are not spot on.

Your reply in general has left me wondering, if you can set-up the speed as you suggest then why in the heck would you be using what you are? there must be a reason.

Dev, As I wrote, I used the Walker because (1) the exact final speed adjustment using only the Lenco idler wheel requires a bit of fiddling. (For example, you have to remove the platter to loosen the adjustment screws, the way I have rebuilt mine, then replace the platter to set the speed, then remove the platter to tighten down the adjustment screws, then replace the platter again, etc.) And, (2) there are some unrelated benefits of using a motor controller; namely it isolates the tt motor from the AC line. Thus any EMI emanating from the motor cannot get back to contaminate AC feeding my phono stage, etc. Is that clear enough? Nothing mysterious.

Also, I already own the Walker, so why not use it? The Walker is useless with any of my other tt's, which are all direct-drive.

Lewm, thx that's great info.

One more thing. I realized whilst taking my evening stroll that I had misrepresented the Lenco. I alone have set up mine so that the speed adjustment is so tedious. On a stock Lenco, there is an external lever that allows you to select 16, 33, 45m or 78 rpm without ever removing the platter, once you have manually set the idler wheel in relation to the motor shaft. So, possibly the guy who told you that the speed was not spot on was using a stock Lenco L75 and was not hip to the fact that a small speed error can be easily corrected with a little DIY effort. I believed that firmly and permanently anchoring the distal end of the idler arm was preferable to using the external adjustment mechanism, wherein the pivot of the idler arm rides on a rail across the motor drive shaft, as you select speed.