Why will no other turntable beat the EMT 927?

Rauliruegas, I am all for measurements if they measure something of value. As I said in my post above, I am more concern with the stylus drag on the speed of the turntable than whether it is at an accurate 33 1/3 rpm. Often if the torque of the motor is too high it will withstand such drag but oscillate for a while afterwards, which isn't good for the music. I would love to see valid measures of this.

On measurements. I have pointed out to Raul many times that if THD had so much "meaning" in relation to lowering audible distortions in our audio system, then amplifier development might have ceased back in the 70s, with the advent of the Phase Linear 700 amplifier. THD was at least down to the 5th decimal place. It sounded like crap compared to any modern amplifier and compared to any quality tube amplifier, ever. So, THD needs to be thrown out as a yardstick. Even manufacturers of solid state amplifiers, which can easily show superiority to tube amps by this meaningless parameter, downplay it these days. Yes, there is probably some high percentage of THD that would be audible, but it would be difficult to establish the cut-off. Harmonics are not all that disturbing to the brain.

Now, as to wow and flutter. I have no idea how much is too much.

Dkarmeli, I don't own a Timeline, but I do use the KAB strobe to check the speed of my SME 30/12. It is spot on. If it changes due to temperature or belt wear, I can adjust the speed. I have read, and I have been told, that the Timeline is far more accurate than the KAB. I don't know this to be a fact. Of course, the further the wall is away from the Timeline, the more precise the measurement can be.

I did test my old turntable with the KAB and it was fine. It was also fine with the Timeline if the dot reflected on a surface within about 10" of the spindle. But once I set it up so the red dot fell on the wall about 3' away, I could clearly see that the turntable was a bit fast. It had no speed adjustability, so I could not slow it down to precisely 33.333.

Regarding strobes in general, I have seen variations. My KAB disk is slightly warped so it appears as though the speed varies at each rotation at the warp, but the numbers don't drift otherwise, so I think I'm fine. It certainly sounds fine to my ears.

I did try a hand held tachometer once and it was highly inaccurate and I got different readings by 2-5% each time I tested. The KAB is better.

I'm just curious if anyone has tested the EMT 927 with a Timeline. I'm sure it passes the KAB strobe just fine.

Lewm said; " The question is only whether all that machinery also results in "the best" sound. And that can be debated forever, as seen here."

Certainly one of the best, and I very much doubt that anyone who's owned/spent time with one or an experienced person with turntables and audio would be debating this way. The 927 is one the very few machines in the industry that has been accepted by many in the know as the Reference, of course until the audiophile thread here.

Perfect case of "I like it" and digital vs analog for Raul, my thoughts put eloquently.