Dover,
Good post, I agree there are many, many variables in this game of making a turntable, arm and cartridge right. The other variable is personal taste. I certainly have my prejudices.
Lespier
I'm more interested in how some touted belt drives(SME, Basis, Verdier, Micro Seiki etc) have fared when tested with the Timeline.
Perhaps the silence is telling us something.
We had some very interesting things show up with our Timeline tests.
I've read all the arguments about the Timeline only showing "that" one single revolution, and not what happens to the speed in between.
I get it, but if the laser is moving steadily along the wall in one direction and consistently it seems obvious that speed variation is a fact.
An even more bizarre thing happened some weeks ago during a test with the laser splashing on a wall about 18 feet away.
Anyone interested in duplicating what we did would be welcome. Just play an LP with fairly benign (soft) passage and note the laser position on the wall.
As the needle begins to enter the more difficult and complex musical passages note not only the position of the laser but it's actual "length" as it paints the light.
It finally occurred to us after some time what (I think) was happening. Would love to read reports from others including your conclusion if you do this experiment.
