High quality AC turntable motor

What John wrote of the Notts controller is also largely true of the other best known tt controllers, namely that they do not do true phase splitting. Yet there are obvious benefits nevertheless. I am on the wait list for mark Kelly's controller, which will also do phase splitting, a la the KK one.

As others said, and I agree, a good motor controller that mates well with your stock motor will probably do you more good than a new motor with higher torque. Townshend turntables in general are well regarded and well designed. I would therefore guess that the motor is quite adequate to do its job as is, but there is much to be gained by feeding it properly. You might ask the designer for suggestions from among the commercially available motor controllers. Anecdotally, I can tell you that a Walker Audio Motor Controller completely transformed the sound of a Nottingham Analog Hyperspace that I once owned. I was shocked at the improvement myself.

Seems like Townshend makes a motor controller, called "Merlin II". I would go for that, if I were in your position.

Lohanimal, a mains sign wave regenerator is what you need in the context of a controller for an AC synchronous motor. "Angling the power.." Sounds to me like another way of saying the same thing, hopefully. Perhaps the K K will be cheaper, but it ought to be much like the Merlin.

Palasr, You are correct; the Walker MC is likely to be pretty much like the SDS. This is what I was referring to in my previous post "most" current commercial controllers do not actually split the phase of the AC.

I am awaiting delivery, as I mentioned, of Mark's second generation controller. It's a finished product, not a kit.

Dear Larry, I think those are two different things (splitting phase, which is an advantage for an AC synchronous motor controller, vs electrically switching speed, which can be done by either controlling voltage or AC frequency or both, depending upon the type of motor). The only issue would be for an induction motor where there is kind of a plateau for voltage, below which the torque falls to zilch. Please anyone correct me if I'm wrong in this; motors are a complex subject that I hardly can claim to study on a daily basis. I am going on my fading memory of Mark Kelly's teachings.

Also, it's not "two separate power lines" strictly speaking. It's taking the sinusoidal AC wave form and generating a second one that is 90 degrees away from the first, so the motor is driven in quadrature. As I understand it, the more perfectly that is achieved, the smoother the motor will run. That's what a capacitor tries to do but does not do nearly as well.

Roscoeii and Redglobe, perhaps you can contact me by email. I cannot seem to find your respective email addresses. Let me know if you cannot find mine. I may be able to help, in any case.

Mosin, "Cogging like there's no tomorrow". Is that like "Party-ing til it's 1999"? Or something like that per Prince's song? Do you know what's become of Colby? His email is no longer valid.

To others, As I think Mark Kelly himself pointed out already, I was way off-base in stating that his new controller would split phase. It's designed for single-phase induction motors.

Palasr, I once wondered about modifying one of the early type PS Audio P300 power plants, such that one can attain a wider and continuous control over frequency. That plus a few other tricks might make it useable as a 2-phase controller. I think it already has an optional 2-phase output. (The waveform of the AC output can be adjusted.) In stock form, the frequency is only adjustable in discrete steps, up and down from 60Hz.

Grbluen, Great question. I have been wondering the same.