I can't help weighing in here that speed consistency was solved economically over 30 years ago with the quartz-regulated direct drive turntables. A $500 Technics SL1200 mkII will keep speed as accurately as a belt drive turntable costing thousands of dollars. There are currently armboards that enable you to upgrade the Technics to a tonearm from SME or any Rega-compatible tonearm, including the entire line from Origin Live.
The one remaining problem is isolating the plinth from the room, and draining in-base vibrations out. I wish the audiophile industry had spent more time and research lowering the noise level of direct drive instead of starting over with garden-variety AC motors and a rubber band. The best of them have wound up with a Rube Goldbergian complexity of mechanisms to keep the bearing on-center (since a belt pulls it sideways) and on-speed, or a bearing-grindingly high mass-loaded platter.
I'm not dissing any turntables or anyone's gear; I just think that if the British cottage turntable industry of the '70s had embraced the Japanese quartz-regulated direct drive mechanism, they could have turned their attention to NHV control and tonearms, because speed accuracy with them is not a problem.
The one remaining problem is isolating the plinth from the room, and draining in-base vibrations out. I wish the audiophile industry had spent more time and research lowering the noise level of direct drive instead of starting over with garden-variety AC motors and a rubber band. The best of them have wound up with a Rube Goldbergian complexity of mechanisms to keep the bearing on-center (since a belt pulls it sideways) and on-speed, or a bearing-grindingly high mass-loaded platter.
I'm not dissing any turntables or anyone's gear; I just think that if the British cottage turntable industry of the '70s had embraced the Japanese quartz-regulated direct drive mechanism, they could have turned their attention to NHV control and tonearms, because speed accuracy with them is not a problem.