jsman,
yes, it's the illuminated number icons that count. If there's drift, and you have a way to adjust platter speed, you can usually get the illuminated numbers to hold steady, plus or minus. I always make speed adjustments with the tonearm lowered and playing the first song of a LP sitting under the strobe disc. It's surprising how much stylus drag there is.
If you don't have a way to adjust speed you can get a close estimate of actual speed and error using this technique posted at the KAB website:
yes, it's the illuminated number icons that count. If there's drift, and you have a way to adjust platter speed, you can usually get the illuminated numbers to hold steady, plus or minus. I always make speed adjustments with the tonearm lowered and playing the first song of a LP sitting under the strobe disc. It's surprising how much stylus drag there is.
If you don't have a way to adjust speed you can get a close estimate of actual speed and error using this technique posted at the KAB website:
TO EVALUATE DRIFTING SPEED, [COUNT] THE NUMBER OF ICONS THAT MOVE IN AND OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT IN 60 SECONDS.
ACTUAL SPEED = 1 + (#ICONS DRIFT PER MIN / 3600) X RPM
DRIFT IN PERCENT = (#ICONS DRIFT PER MIN / 3600) X 100