What's the deal with idler turntables and do they have a place in modern HiFi?
totem39573 posts. Regarding "stylus drag" affecting the speed of a properly designed turntable with a platter of sufficient mass: Not measurable was put to rest forever. This was talked to death in the Sutherland Timeline threadYou're clearly mistaken, because there are two people in this very thread who have contrary evidence. One of them is Thom, a turntable designer. As for myself, I've actually made the measurements, rather than just relying on others' opinions. It's easy to understand if you think about it. So-called "stylus drag" is a deviation that would be measured in fractions of a gram. If you consider a 22-pound platter spinning on a low friction bearing, it's pretty far-fetched that such a tiny change in force could have such a big effect. I've even tested this with the Telarc 1812 LP, which has some of the most heavily modulated grooves ever pressed on LP. Note that this is also on a turntable that uses a threaded reflex clamp; that eliminates the chance of the disc itself slipping on the mat, which of course would skew the result. To be clear, I don't doubt that this is a problem with some LPs on some turntables. And LP playback is surely fraught with challenges. But the effect of stylus drag on platter speed? That's a solvable problem. |
I will say this, as far as measurements are concerned. At present, my best tools are the Feickert Pro software and a Timeline, and I’m not seeing any effect (can’t directly measure music with the Feickert, unfortunately). I’ll leave it open to the possibility that at a finer level of resolution, there may be a drag effect, but somehow, I doubt it. Remember that speed changes occur in varying time domains. At the finest level of granularity, we hear it as distortion. If you’ve never read the IAR review of the Rockport Sirius, the first page of this lengthy tome is a good read for an analog-file. Worst-case, it will cure your insomnia ;-) http://www.iar-80.com/page12.html Cheers, Thom @ Galibier Design |
Here´s Teres Audio´s article about http://www.teresaudio.com/manuals/teres_speed_tech.pdf |
The "problem" with this hobby is that there are frequent instances where we have phenomenon A associated with physical fact B, and the natural human response to such coincidences is to ascribe A to B. But we almost never have good scientific experiments to prove or debunk such associations. Thus we are all floating in a sea of subjective judgements, and there is an industry based on tweaks that thrives upon our ignorance. (Sorry, but I do not think the Timeline is much better than a well designed strobe, like the KAB, for looking at instantaneous deviations from correct platter speed. However, if you DO see a speed deviation with the Timeline, you do have a problem.) |
