2008 RMAF – – – all things analog.

Raul, Stylus drag does affect platter speed. I am sure the the effect is small enough that it would be extremely difficult to measure. There is plenty of evidence that suggests that it is audible, but nothing that I would consider proof. A scientific measurement would be interesting but would tell us nothing about audibility. Only our ears can tell us that. The problem is that there is no practical way to remove the affects of stylus drag without changing other system parameters. So it is unlikely that we will see a definitive answer to the question anytime soon.

I see the issue of stylus drag as a well grounded theory because there is plenty of empirical evidence that supports it.

Dear Mike: +++++ " but it seems to me that getting the speed right, and i mean really, really right....... is the hard part and by far the most important part in music reproduction in the analog domain. " +++++

Absolutely true: a must to have!! this " simple " fact makes a paramount difference on the enjoy level of music home system reproduction.

Right now I'm looking for a Studer A-80 that some one is offering me, this guy show me that machine running against a Tandberg one and like in your case no contest against the Studer where the speed stability is astonishing.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Dear Chris: +++++ There is plenty of evidence that suggests that it is audible, but nothing that I would consider proof. A scientific measurement would be interesting but would tell us nothing about audibility. Only our ears can tell us that. " +++++

Agree, I know that the subject is very complex maybe more that I can understand.
Anyway what you and Mike argue about give us a better understanding on the stylus drag issue.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Every post here misses the most important and overlooked point in this discussion of speed accuracy. While it's a laudable and important goal, fetishing on speed perfection as the sole goal of turntable design misses that the eccentricity of virtually every record you own will produce greater effective speed error than any speed deviation found in a properly executed design, regardless of whether it's belt, direct drive, idler wheel or whatever. Records and record playback is a terribly imperfect technology. That it still sounds the best despite the imperfections is miraculous. If you want perfection get a CD player.

---Michael Fremer

Grooves, You make an excellent and valid point. So, what do you personally think accounts for the qualitative difference in sound between the best direct-drives and idler-drive tables on the one hand and belt-drive tables on the other? We all or most of us seem to agree that such a difference exists, except maybe as regards the very best belt-drive tables (not necessarily the most expensive). Couldn't it be that we are hearing an additive effect of speed instability due to the turntable on top of speed instability due to eccentrically cut records (i.e., nearly all of them)? What might be happening is that the brain learns to accept the sound from a given LP, good or bad, as a baseline for comparison of turntable performance. Most of us use LPs with which we are very familiar in the turntable comparison process.