Wow I just got the KAB strobe

10-01-08: Seasoned
...The speed may drift after the TT is switched on and has allowed to warm up and settle in. Let the TT run for about 15 min before adjustments are made.

You can test all these techniques by setting the speed as you have done and with no warm-up. Then, add the record, weights, stylus in groove; and let it warm up. Now check the speed again. Surprise!

Or you can just get a Technics or Denon quartz-governed direct drive turntable, which makes all these adjustments for record weight, clamp weight, and stylus drag on the fly.
:-)

0-01-08: Stringreen
Unless you have perfect pitch, this is a non issue. As long as the speed is close, the result is fine.

Well, it's also about tempo as well as pitch. Although there are plenty of variations in tempo for any given musical piece, there have been a few geniuses (especially in jazz) who seem to have an uncanny ability to set a tempo that draws you into the music. I'm thinking particularly of Count Basie, his guitarist Freddie Green (whose nickname was "Father Time"), Quincy Jones, and Oscar Peterson. There is even an album Basie and Peterson did together called "The Timekeepers."

With my direct drive turntables with pitch control, I found that--compared to the tempos Basie set--even a 1% variation made a significant difference in how engaging his band's presentation was.

The KAB strobe is as good as any other.

But it seems to frequently show up as a go-to tool among analog hardware reviewers at Stereophile and Abso!ute Sound.

And of course you can always get the strobe from the source, KAB USA.

Hey Stringreen I'm going to see Lynn Harrell with the Seattle Symphony Friday. 9th row orchestra level, dead center. Woo-hoo!

[quote]10-01-08: Stringreen
Hey Johnny53... Next time get off of the orchestra level. The sound bounces
off of the floor and is adversly affected.[/quote]Well, I had to stop working a
couple years ago due to health, so I don't have a lot of spare change for the
best seats. I was able get this seat for $17, which is like student pricing. At
Seattle Symph's price for front row balcony (if it had been available), I
probably would have had to pass. Did you play for the New York Phil or the
Met? I know Lynn and Jim Levine are buddies going back to their Cleveland
days.

My brother studied cello at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
(CCM) from 1968-1973. During that time opera singers Tom Fox and Kathy
Battle were there too (Tom Fox is also from our high school in Cincinnati),
along with actor Dorian Harewood. In the Fall of 1972 Harrell and Levine left
the Cleveland Symphony, Harrell for CCM and Levine to direct the New York
Met. Levine's originally from Cincinnati. So sometimes when he was back in
town he'd stop by CCM to visit Harrell and check out the local talent. Basically
I saw Levine discover Kathleen Battle. My brother studied with Harrell that one
year, and said he learned so much from him it felt like it invalidated all that
he'd studied up to that point.

I'm looking forward to seeing/hearing Harrell again, but I wish he'd still trot
out his Montagnana instead of the DuPre Strad, at least for some of it. The
DuPre has a broader tonality and a deeper bass, but I've never heard a cello
sing in the upper register like his Montagnana.

10-02-08: Thom_mackris

JohnnyB53:
With my direct drive turntables with pitch control, I found that--compared to the tempos Basie set--even a 1% variation made a significant difference in how engaging his band's presentation was.

And this, good sir is why Regas typically measure fast - so that they're more "engaging". Louder and faster is an age old demo room trick. If you're liking "dead-on" 33.33, maybe you'll like 1% faster more, or even playing a 33 at 45.

Ah, but Mr. Mackris, notice I said "1% variation." I didn't specify if I meant fast or slow, and that is one of the keys to Basie and those who follow him such as Quincy Jones. Basie was the absolute master of swing, and swing has to have time to ... well ... swing! And that means knowing when to be languid as well as energetic. A 1% increase in his tempos will wreck the vibe as surely as a 1% decrease.

But overall your point is well taken, and also relates to raising the pitch slightly above A=440Hz. I am a percussionist, and both vibraphones I've owned were tuned to A=442, presumably to cut through the mix a little more. I have heard that Leonard Bernstein tuned his orchestras to A=442 also, to give them a little more snap and brilliance.

Rega's slightly-faster-than-standard is--as you said--a demo parlor trick, similar to having one system slightly louder than the other. When I was in audio retail in the mid-70s in SoCal, the Big Box stereo store down the road from us often set the tweeter controls of the national brand speakers to the -3dB position so their high-margin house brand speakers would sound "better" to buyers in a quick audition.