Turntable speed accuracy

D,

welcome to the left coast. if you get up here toward Seattle please stop by.

i too have preference for DD and idler, and while i have no experience with thread/high inertia i defer to your perspective about it.

i think that speed is like noise floor; until you hear your system with lower noise, you don't realize what you were missing. until you hear your records with better speed you don't know what you are missing. and i mean your records in your system.

as one climbs the ladder of performance this type thing becomes a bigger and bigger issue.

Now D and Syntax,
That photo just needs more explaining?
Are those speakers available at Audio Connection? :^)

Dear Halcro, just a nice multi-way horn system based set-up in the beautiful Monterey Bay area.
A friend of ours we are visiting to fine-tune the system.
Besides that it is leisure, wine ( some great vintages ..) and song (music ... good music).
Followed next week by another great time in southern Texas.
Greetz,
D.

I agree with Dertonarm on this subject. DD turntables vary due to their designs and construction. Some are very accurate. String drives can indeed be very accurate, as long as the string is fresh. Idler drives, the one I know a little about, have an inherent tracking error of around one part per million, depending on the footprint of the idler wheel itself. Belt drives are not so inherently accurate as the others, although advances have been made to alleviate belt creep through various workarounds and, of course, the recent use of tape.

So, a controller should be pretty accurate, but exactly how much? I believe one part per million accuracy is reasonable, but if we do that, we can easily substitute a standard clock with an OCXO (oven controlled quartz oscillator) with GPS referencing, which can improve the accuracy of a properly designed controller to around one part per trillion, or better. Can anyone hear the difference with such a controller connected to a turntable that is only capable of one part per million accuracy due to mechanical constraints? Certainly, the math doesn't warrant the extra effort, but at least all bases are covered. Would such an accurate controller be warranted with a proper string driven table? I don't know, but virtually anyone can hear a measurable difference with a good controller. That much I do know. If you have the opportunity to compare a turntable without a controller to the same setup, but with a good controller attached, listen for little parts of music that we never typically use as a guide, like small sounds from background reed instruments. You might be surprised.

Win

.

Most turntable owners believe, they get a Product which is done right, more or less perfect for the money and all they have to do as next step to think about the ultimate technical solution (independent from price).
This is another common wrong way in audiophile existence. When we go back to the basics, lets think about the belt. Most of them are so horrible from quality and specs, it is hard to believe. Basis did a better work but most belts I tried produced so much drift, that any discussion about following Design features were wasted time.
Even with a heavy platter like shown in the picture showed me results, which were amazing ( really depressing what some 'manufacturers' offer us as 'High End'.

Belt comparisons..

These comparisons are even more depressing with light Platters....
The Audiophile gets what he deserves. Marketing and Fangroups can replace a lot today ....anyway...fun counts.
Tomorrow is another day to transform a big orchestra in a lifelike presentation into a owners home who did a lot of things right....