wow and flutter

New belts are not tight, but neither are they expensive ($20). It would be worth trying.

If the turntable has the original belt-mounted motor then the rega motor upgrade kit will improve speed stability. After that the Heed Orbit power supply is reputed to improve speed stability. By the time you have purchased both of these you might be better off selling the rega and getting a better deck.

However to really crack speed stability you need a better turntable. At it's price point the rega has fundamental limitations. The platter is too light, with not enough peripheral mass. The bearing is not designed for extra mass, so carefull with adding mass to the existing platter. And an acrylic platter will have even less mass.

Look at the design of the Teres and Nottingham decks for examples of how to build belt drive decks with speed stability.

Oh, and make sure the deck is absolutely level, so that the bearing shaft is not rubbing on its housing.

A new belt is always a good idea,after about 3 years.The Heed power supply mentioned in the prevous post was especially developed for the Rega.A stable power source will always yield an improvement,so try that or some form of conditioning before going full hog on new motor.There are issues with the motor upgrade,such as the way it is mounted being a step-back,and so you might not consider it worth the money if you can get good results otherwise.Belt-drive turntables will always be subject to speed stability issues caused by stylus drag because of their relatively weak motors.

"Belt-drive turntables will always be subject to speed stability issues caused by stylus drag because of their relatively weak motors."

A 20+lb platter should make this a non-issue. And that I believe is why practically all high end belt drive tables have high-mass, often periphery weighted, platters. I would wager that the polar moment of inertia of these platters is a lot greater than the torque generated by the motor of a direct drive deck.

Seand, it's not all about torque--it's speed stability. That's why I mentioned *linear* when suggesting direct drive and that's why VPI uses flywheels in their top end belt drives. In fact, their top model uses two motors and one flywheel. Why not go for the simpler, single motor, 20+ platter approach that you suggest instead? Because
it takes more than 20 pounds. In my belt drive transport there's a weigh on top of the CD and that's enough once I had the power supply modded by Dan Wright--but in a turntable it's a whole different game. Think about it.

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I must admit to making a somewhat general statement here and I am sure you can address this issue with a heavier weighted platter.It does not become a non-issue though, even with high-end turntables and I crave your indulgence as that is one of the things that make the idler-wheel Lenco very competitive,as is being dicussed over at that thread about building high-end on the cheap at home depot.Basically no matter how sophisticated your motor or platter/bearing system is,you are still relying on a rubber belt that is subject to cogging,stretching and wear etc. The idler wheel method provides a superior constant speed stability.For more on this and a better explanation I can only recommend the above-mentioned thread.