First: Separate the marketing from the technology.... - doodlebug

Vinyl Asylum

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First: Separate the marketing from the technology....

Posted by doodlebug on July 5, 2005 at 10:29:57

In Reply to: Please explain servo vs. quartz locked posted by rogercanada2004@yahoo.ca on July 5, 2005 at 05:20:35:

Here's the history:

Early servo-speed controls in consumer turntables were in the form of small circuits embedded into the little motors used to drive low-mass platters - most of which were belt drives to start with. They were simple and reliable for the most part. Problem was that these used only a small sensor tied to the motor armature which, in turn, controlled the actual DC voltage on the motor. They had problems with drifting over time. This is why you'll see speed adjustment knobs on those early tables - along with the speed dots on the rim of the platters.

So, later generations of belt-drive and the early direct drives began to use crystal-sourced signals to compare the platter speed via increasingly sophisticated DC motors. When these were announced, vendor marketing departments siezed on the crystal/quartz feature as clear differentiators - particurlarly between higher-end tables vs low end stuff. Hence the Quartz-locked/Quartz-controlled marketing verbiage you see on many tables.

Note that all of these used servo - or more specifically - closed loop control systems to provide better and better wow-and-flutter apeed-control performance from turntables.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

David

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Please explain servo vs. quartz locked - rogercanada2004@yahoo.ca 05:20:35 07/05/05 (13)

My Technics DD experience - daviddeep 20:48:36 07/05/05 (2)

Regarding the SL1500 - bkearns 03:50:50 07/06/05 (1)

Forgive my technological ignorance - daviddeep 07:18:25 07/06/05 (0)

First: Separate the marketing from the technology.... - doodlebug 10:29:57 07/05/05 (0)

Re: Please explain servo vs. quartz locked - maabx 06:59:50 07/05/05 (0)

Re: Please explain servo vs. quartz locked - maabx 06:49:52 07/05/05 (0)

Servo is from Latin for slave. - Mark Kelly 06:33:43 07/05/05 (5)

Re: Servo is from Latin for slave. - Muzikmike 08:21:45 07/05/05 (4)

Re: Servo is from Latin for slave. - melomane 17:15:53 07/05/05 (0)

Whatever yer smokin', got any more??? /nt\ - HenryH 08:40:01 07/05/05 (2)

As a matter of fact... - Muzikmike 09:23:59 07/05/05 (1)

Luv that hickory smoked ham. . . yum . . . yum. /nt\ - HenryH 10:48:54 07/05/05 (0)

My meager understanding is as follows... - EdAInWestOC 05:41:24 07/05/05 (0)

Follow Ups

First: Separate the marketing from the technology.... - doodlebug 10:29:57 07/05/05 (0)

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