Turntable speed accuracy

I would love to know the results of using a Timeline on a massive platter, belt driven turntable like the Walker. Maybe it's a touch fast or a touch slow (which will show up as "cumulative error"), but I find it hard to believe that a 70 pound platter will be affected by even the greatest amount of stylus drag. Of course you would have to set the timeline on top or the Walker record clamp to compare apples to apples.

This makes me think. When testing your tables with the Timeline with the stylus in the groove, and you see what appears to be a slightly slow speed, how in the world do you know that it's not just the LP slipping on the platter? It seems like you would need to make sure that the record is mechanically clamped to the platter for the results to mean anything. And I'm not just talking about a little record weight. I'm talking about a several pound weight or a clamp that threads or clamps onto the platter spindle.

To put it another way... You test your TT with the Timeline on the platter with no LP and it maintains perfect speed. You then test your TT with an LP and the stylus in the groove and the Timeline says that your TT is slow, which makes you think it's due to stylus drag. That seemingly "slow" result could simply be because of the LP slipping on the platter, not the platter slowing down due to the stylus drag.

We often mention the great engineers of the sophisticated turntables of the 70s and 80s. What they were thinking, why they did this, why they did that. Does anyone actually know one of these guys? Where are they today? You would think that at least one of them was an audiophile today and maybe even posts on an audiophile forum, but I have never seen one of their posts. You would also think that someone in the modern turntable industry would have bumped into one of these guys at one point, but I haven't heard of that, either.

How cool would it be to talk to someone who designed the

se turntables?

You must be kidding me, right?

Hiho,
I'm not sure how to take that. If you know the names of any engineers who designed state of the art TTs in the 70s and 80s, why don't you just list them, along with the company they worked for, and where they post in discussion forum today? That's what I'm interested in knowing.

Who did Kuzma work for before starting Kuzma in 82?

What about Yorke? Where did he work before starting to build his own TTs?

How about Driessen of Pluto Audio? Pluto was founded in 74. Did he work somewhere else before that?

Lewm,

Congratulations. Is that with the stylus in the groove?

Halcro, I can't think of a reason for a bearing to provide drag in a turntable- that seems like a Bad Idea to me. Are you sure the bearing is OK?

What style bearing is in the Raven? I remember reading about it some time ago... something about it being oil-less or not having an oil reservoir or something like that. Halcro?

Unfortunately bringing the motor closer to the platter also brings it closer to the cartridge as well.

It also results in less contact between the belt and the motor pulley. That seems like a bad idea because there's already so little contact there. Right?

What harm do you think there is if the two threads touch?

Increased friction and additional vibration/noise, especially when the knot of one rubs past the other thread.

How do TT bearings in motors from the 50s differ from those used now?