Turntable Speed

I have a mint condition Yamaha P-550 turntable that I bought new in 1983 that also has the strobe light adjustment.  I had it completely serviced to set up a turntable system for my youngest son a couple of years ago, and it dials in the speed like butter now.  Very nice, low maintenance, budget turntable.

Second the KAB strobe disc. 

The SOTA Eclipse package with Condor and Roadrunner is a very worthwhile upgrade for a belt drive turntable that you are invested in that doesn’t have automatic speed correction. I did the upgrade on my VPI Classic 4 myself. Combined with an Origin Live belt it totally transformed the sound. W/F is .06 as measured with Analog Magic and speed consistency as shown by the Roadrunner usually shows 33.333 + .001 or .002.

I use the Phoenix Engineering Eagle and Roadrunner to control the motor on my Lenco.  PE designed the Eclipse system for SOTA and certainly it is wonderful for any turntable with an AC synchronous motor, but now we are talking nearly $1000 in cost.  (SOTA includes a proper motor in the total cost of the Eclipse, which does ease the pain a bit.)  For comparison, KAB strobe kit that includes a wide diameter disc and a battery powered strobe light is about $100 and won't correct platter speed; it just tells you where you are.  The Sutherland Timeline is about $400 and not worth 4X the cost of the KAB kit, IMO.  If I owned a vintage DD turntable (whoops, turns out I own 4 of them), I would check speed even if the built-in strobe suggests it is spot on.  I am not so sure that those built-in devices are sensitive to speed variation due to stylus drag, etc, or slight errors in set speed.