Turntable speed accuracy

Hmm. Something not mentioned so far with regards to speed stability is soundstage. Anyone who has heard a good tape machine knows what I mean.

When the 'table speeds up and slows down the skating forces on any radial tracking arm will change. This in turn places forces upon the stylus. In effect, the lateral tracking force of the stylus oscillates. IOW we hear the speed variation as an instability in the soundstage.

Tape is immune to this sort of thing. So are straight tracking arms.

When the machine is really good at speed stability, and if you have a concentric LP(!) then the soundstage will match that of tape.

When the total speed is off, sometimes I hear it due to the pitch, other times I hear it due to the timing. Musicians play things in certain keys and tempos for a reason. With some pieces a speed error is of no consequence and with others it means the heart and soul of the piece is not transmitted to the listener...

Dear Daniel, While Marx is your countryman I refuse to believe that my German friends are 'petty bourgeous'. On the contrary you are all the world citezens with some peculiar hobby. However 'love makes blind' is a Dutch proverb. Not easy to choose among the social rules between so many countries btw.

Regards,

Since Dertonearm did this to me once, when I erroneously attributed the phrase "one man's meat is another man's poison" to Shakespeare, I will now point out that Shakespeare is the oft-cited source for the quote "love is blind" (from The Merchant of Venice). This is not to say that a Dutch person did not also say it. And at perfect speed so as not to alter pitch.

Dear Lew, If you keep quoting all kinds of prowerbs attributing them to Shakespeare there is of course the chance that you may be right sometimes. BTW if it is the case that love makes blind then probable other people were also capable to discovere this truth. Only for the so called intellectual property it is relevant who wrote what first.

Regards,

Atmasphere is quite correct about constant speed and soundstage.
There are many audible benefits with a turntable which does maintain constant unwavering speed which are unrelated to pitch.
With most turntables.......when the music becomes loud, and complex......the soundstage narrows and flattens, the transparency disappears and the sound becomes brittle.
This is caused by the auto modulation distortion of the soundwave in the time domain.
It is no different to a distortion in the amplitude of the soundwave which we simply would refuse to tolerate.
Those with tape decks have a better understanding of this phenomena and unfortunately........the majority of turntable listeners have not really experienced the liberation that accompanies constant speed control.
Once you do.......there's no going back:^)