Pheonix Engineering Road Runner

If I'm not mistaken, the Falcon would detect a basic sign wave and would adjust the rotation speed if the form and curve of the sound wave was irregular. Or maybe I'm thinking of a different unit.

@goofyfoot

I had an SME 3009 11 improved with the removable head shell on the Thorens TD145 I had back in the seventies. That was the only arm I used on it while I owned it and it played well with the 145. If your hearing wow and flutter in the music , address that first and foremost. I never had any speed issues with mine so I know that when all components and circuitry is at spec they perform well within reasonable acceptance.
There are those that consider your arm underrated , but that is a personal choice of biased requirements and reasonable mating of neither the table or the arm underused or overvalued in playback. Equal to each other...

@fsonicsmith
Someone above mentioned picking your shortcoming as all drives have them. I look at it just slightly differently; each drive method has it’s strengths. Pick which strength you most want rather than pick which shortcoming you wish to avoid.

Actually that is not what was said at all. It was never alluded to as picking the short comings. It was highlighting the FACT , they all have short comings and different presentations to the same recordings. Quote...

Has2be quote....
" The only thing wrong is that many " music lovers " make out that one drive is better than the other, empirically. They are not , they are options that offer different presentations and interpretations of the same recording, and they all have strengths and weaknesses and they all are made in different levels of quality, and addressing or focusing on different obstacles from designer to designer.
The caveat is , CHOOSE "YOUR OWN" MEDICINE, or pick "your own" poison."

The last sentence, I capped for the point made. That is picking your preference of sound choice (medicine) , not trying to make something it isn’t and never will be like many "poison" themselves to believe they can. You brought up idler drives which is a perfect example. I spent a lot of time with Garrod 301’s and no other drive method can replicate the sonic drive they and other sorted idlers have. Turntables don’t sound better or worse because of the drive method applied. They sound better or worse because they are poorly designed or built regardless of drive, or are well built and designed, but poorly set up and operated. The later is painful to see and hear while the owner blames the product or drive method.

They sound better or worse because they are poorly designed or built regardless of drive,

To put it diplomatically, you are naive. As with all other components in the chain, no amount of engineering can do away with the flaws inherent in recording and playing back vinyl. Perhaps you suffer from Mike Fremeritis. It's a condition where someone who used to embrace the limitations of vinyl suddenly aspires to and strives to challenge the theoretical limits of digital reproduction. In other words, a simple form of deluded madness. This syndrome is most often seen in 65-70 year old men who can not accept the simple notion that their time is nearing an end. 

@fsonicsmith To put it diplomatically, you are naive. As with all other components in the chain, no amount of engineering can do away with the flaws inherent in recording and playing back vinyl. Perhaps you suffer from Mike Fremeritis. It’s a condition where someone who used to embrace the limitations of vinyl suddenly aspires to and strives to challenge the theoretical limits of digital reproduction. In other words, a simple form of deluded madness. This syndrome is most often seen in 65-70 year old men who can not accept the simple notion that their time is nearing an end

Your comprehension sucks.....
I never said anything can do away with the flaws at all. Quite the opposite actually. I made a point of saying they all have flaws and strengths. Its the users ability to maximize the limits it can achieve from a medium rife with challenges that include the equipment in the chain and the users experience, which includes making the right choice for what your looking for.. I have never so much as read a single thing Fremer writes about anything. I embrace the medium because I have a very large vinyl collection from over a decade of working part time in a record store to pay for the records. And another couple decades buying them when they were being given away. Some is music you simply can’t find on other formats. You learn things over the years to avoid and to look for and in doing that makes it as well as it can be. I never suggested it was the end all. My reel to reel player most times exceeds the turntables performance IMHO.
You have a quick shiitty attitude towards fellow members and even go as far as inventing context that didn’t or doesn’t exist. Try reading and grasping the context of ALL the words , not the straws that line your argumentative nature, you think.... I bet your a real quiet man without a keyboard where facial expression and scale to size would reduce your insincerity and bravado, drastically.....

’Some is music you simply can’t find on other formats. ’ has2be,
this is why I started investing in mono classical vinyl, due to its unavailability in the digital (remastered) format. I have some great original vinyl from the 1950’s as well as newly remastered and repressed mono vinyl.The inherent nature of owning this formatted type of recording is to realize the benefits of mono while excepting its limitations (though subjective). Which leads me to conclude that all recordings are limited in some way. John Cage was quoted as saying that "a recording of Beethoven’s 5th ain’t Beethoven’s 5th."
It’s hard to imagine a future reality when recorded music will equal or exceed the listening experience of a live performance. Even from an aesthetic perspective. This being a reference point, I then have to evaluate the very nature of a tube tuner vs a solid state tuner, electrostatic vs. dynamic speakers, an active line conditioner vs a passive one, etc..This being said, I don’t much see the point in getting just a tachometer to mount onto my turntable platter. It reminds me of the oscilloscope on the Marantz 10 B, something to watch in terms of visual stimulation. One might as well by fine art instead.With the Roadrunner, Phoenix and Falcon in mind, I’d like to also mention that an external device with the ability to make platter rotation corrections is intriguing however I would need to hear it in operation, or at least be told the audible advantages to owning one before buying the thing. And in today’s world where most transactions are done via online, these devices become very inaccessible. In other words, I’ve yet to be convinced of the audible advantages of hooking this equipment up to my Thoren’s belt drive turntable which might explain why the company went finito.