What's the speed of your turntable?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by TVC15, Jul 12, 2015.

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  1. TVC15

    TVC15 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    With the advent of the iPhone and apps like "Turntabulator" and Feickert's "Platterspeed" it's easier than ever to know the speed accuracy of your turntable. I thought it would be fun and informative for others to post their results from one or both of these applications.

    I'll start... my table is a Rega RP10.

    Generally pleased by the low 'max deviation' scores and also the steady low-pass frequency curve (nice tight sin curve).

    Would be great to see this sort of output from all the other tables out there in SHTV land! Note for Platterspeed you'll need a quality test disk with a 3150hz test tone (like the one offered by Analogue Productions).

    Rega RP10:

    (note this is following a speed adjustment. Out of the box it measured 33.55 rpm)

    (also note than 3150hz would be dead-on accurate)


    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    VinylRob, Shawn, The FRiNgE and 2 others like this.
  2. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    My Linn is now at 33.33 thanks to Turntabulator. It was at 33.30 which I was used to but I can tell the difference with the slight increase. If I can't get turntable to run exact I actually prefer it slightly slower rather than fast in that I feel it sounds more lifelike. Spot on is great!
     
    The FRiNgE and Alan2 like this.
  3. Reese

    Reese Just because some watery tart threw a sword!

    Any recommendations for similar Android apps?
     
  4. TVC15

    TVC15 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Platterspeed is also available for Android. This one requires a 3150hz tone from a test disk. Better for real time speed adjustment.

    Turntabulator uses the iPhone's gyroscope. Nothing like it for Android that I'm aware of.
     
    Reese likes this.
  5. Drew769

    Drew769 Buyer of s*** I never knew I lacked

    Location:
    NJ
    Because I run the Roadrunner Tachometer on my table all of the time, I can say that speed on belt driven tables seldom remains consistent throughout a side, or with different albums. Depending on where the needle is on the record, the table can fluctuate, and also just from inertia built up from playing a side. The Roadrunner hooks up to my Eagle PSU, which then will make adjustments to the power to keep the speed as flat as possible.
     
  6. Robert C

    Robert C Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Gregory Earl likes this.
  7. Seafinch

    Seafinch Preferred Patron

    Location:
    United States
    My Clearaudio Concept is running at 33.11 according to Turntabulator.
     
  8. Bart

    Bart Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
  9. TVC15

    TVC15 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Would love to see more ! Especially Rega, VPI, and Project folk.
     
  10. phish

    phish Jack Your Body

    Location:
    Biloxi, MS, USA
    My Project was 33.3 (.04% off) the first time and 33.2 (exact speed?) the second time. I'll check my techs later.
     
  11. missan

    missan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Stockholm

    You can see from the frequency chart that the speed has a low freq drift with an interval of about 20 seconds, so the speed will very much depend on how you measure.
     
  12. atbolding

    atbolding Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    [​IMG]

    But, it's an SL-1200 so no one is surprised.....
     
  13. Michael Ries

    Michael Ries Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Paul, MN
    My thorens td-160 was exact at 33.3, but the Nottingham is fast at 33.7! It's actually something I've suspected recently, so now I have to figure out how to fix it, or if I can fix it...

    Turntabulator is the best or worst $2 I've ever spent...
     
    floweringtoilet and TVC15 like this.
  14. missan

    missan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Stockholm
    @TurboDriver, I would personally look into why Your freq chart looks the way it does. Is it depending on the record used, or is it depending on the TT?

    I have an 1200II as a main TT myself, and it´s dead on 33,30.
     
  15. TVC15

    TVC15 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    33.30 would be slightly slow. 33.33 would be dead accurate, with a needle running in the groove. 33.35 without.

    The freq chart is pretty good, look at the scaling. It only runs from 3140 to 3165. The lowpass filtered frequency is a near perfect sin curve.

    REALLY surprised no one else is posting results. Maybe not the right forum for more serious analysis?
     
  16. missan

    missan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Stockholm

    If You look at the chart You´ll see there is a freq variation of +-0.4%. That is really much. That the high pass filtering removes these low freq variations doesn´t mean much, they are of course still there in reality, and we don´t know how the filtering is done.

    It´s much better to look at an FFT analysis to see the performance. But as I said personally I would look inte these low freq speed variations, where they are coming from.
     
  17. octaneTom

    octaneTom Man of Leisure

    Here's the speed on my Rega P5 before (left) and after installation of the Groovetracer reference sub-platter:

    [​IMG]
     
    The FRiNgE and TVC15 like this.
  18. Tony Plachy

    Tony Plachy Senior Member

    Location:
    Pleasantville, NY
    I hope you realize that the results you get from your iphone application is dependent on the test record that you use being punch exactly on center. If it isn't you will get a frequency variation that has nothing do with your TT.
     
    Panama Hotel and BrentB like this.
  19. Michael Ries

    Michael Ries Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Paul, MN
    I was playing around with this app some more last night to see if I could get any different results and it stayed pretty consistent at 33.7 for my Nottingham deck. Playing with the height of the motor I was able to get 33.65, but nothing better than that.

    There aren't speed adjustments on the table, so I'm not really sure what else I can try. Would a new belt be worth a shot? I assume an older belt would cause the table to run slow, but maybe I'm wrong.
     
  20. Tony Plachy

    Tony Plachy Senior Member

    Location:
    Pleasantville, NY
    Older belts can do several things. They can stretch, they can get sticky, they can break. VPI (I have a VPI TNT-HR) recommends putting talc on the belts periodically to improve their grip in the rotor and the platter. Not sure what kind of belt is on your TT, but I doubt if talc would do it any harm. Put the talc on your thumb and fore finger and let the belt slip between your thumb and finger as it runs. See if it helps, YMMV.
     
    Michael Ries likes this.
  21. TVC15

    TVC15 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Would love to see compared to others here, on other tables.
     
  22. TVC15

    TVC15 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Yep. That's why we are looking at two different applications. One of which having nothing to do with a test record!
     
    Robert C likes this.
  23. Tony Plachy

    Tony Plachy Senior Member

    Location:
    Pleasantville, NY
    How does the Turntabulator measure the rpm's?
     
  24. TVC15

    TVC15 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    The internal gyroscope of the iPhone. It doesn't report variation, though.
     
  25. Michael Ries

    Michael Ries Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Paul, MN
    Thanks for the tip! Definitely worth a shot.
     
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