Stylus-Drag..Fact or Fiction?

Halcro, Very few of us have perfect pitch and even those that do probably still do not have the resolution to hear the degree of slow down caused by stylus drag. Unless you have a table like the Monaco that can pick up speed changes in 1/72nd of a rotation there is little you can do other than set your turntable speed while playing a record. The drag (speed) is going to change across the record and with various frequencies and modulation thus the speed is going to vary fractionally. I would love to see how a table like Kuzma's Stabi XL DC performs with the timeline. I would hazard a guess that it does very well. I know for a fact my SOTA slows down a little just by using a strobe disc. Their new drive might counter that but it has lower resolution, 1 rotation. Will that be good enough? It should certainly do better. At any rate I can not hear changes in pitch that slight so does it really matter? Again to me the most important aspect of vinyl playback is noise. Not only can you hear it but it can also drive your subwoofers crazy particularly if you use room control. I have had several records that I had to return because the lath used to cut the master was in bad shape and the rumble was obnoxious, all Rykodisc I might add. 
Today is Yom Kippur and I would like to apologize to anyone I have pissed off last year:)  

Thank you Phoenix. What do you think is the optimum motor to use for a turntable?

From my experience, the highest performance for either belt drive or DD is a 3 phase BLDC motor with the caveat that it is run as a 3 phase AC synch motor and not a DC motor (they can be operated both ways).  If done right, they have little or no cogging, more torque than a comparable AC synch motor and the speed is determined by the frequency so speed control is fairly simple, though the drive circuitry is not.

Richardkrebs, I do not think there is much difference between analog and digital in that regard. There is just more stuff to deal with in the analog world. Staying purely in the analog world I think you rob yourself of some fine musical experiences. As an example, Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick.
I have three versions, the original Album, the CD version and a remastered 96/24 download. In the CD version Ian's voice is cutting and uncomfortable at 95 db forcing me to use a notch filter centered at 3000 Hz. The album not so at all. Ian's voice is perfectly smooth. I just got the digital download and listened to it for the first time running the album in sinc at the same time volume matching with a meter. Ian's voice has a bit more bite than the album but not uncomfortable at all, but the download has superior bass and a better dynamic range so it is more punch. At the end of the first side I hear a squeak in the bass drum pedal for the very first time and I can not hear it in the other versions. Imaging is better in the 3rd dimension. Ian's flute and Martin's guitar float in space where on the Album an CD version they are painted on a wall.
Now much of this is probably due to the mastering but some is not particularly the dynamic range. Much less dynamic compression than on the album and CD. 
I'll go where ever the music is best. Sometimes vinyl wins the comparison sometimes not. This is also true for old analog recordings like Thick as a Brick. It is not just the modality. Other issues come into play. The only common denominator I have noticed is that digital recordings sound better in high res digital so I avoid newer recordings in vinyl. With older recordings recorded before 1980 vinyl is frequently better than the CD version. 
Sorry for getting off topic. But, In the end it is all about the enjoyment of music. Cool looking equipment is no good if it does not sound right.
Some systems will tilt the analysis for instance in a system that is a bit dull the CD version of Thick as a Brick might sound better. And so you get variations in opinion not due to different hearing. Different systems.
When I do these things with friends present more often than not we come to exactly the same conclusions. Don't give up on digital. There is a world of great music there. The only problem is that there is no equipment there that is as fascinating as vinyl playback. 

Mike