Kab Speedstrobe and use

[Solanum]

I saw someone on here talk about their Kab Speedstrobe (sorry can't remember who!) and looked it up, thought it seemed likely to be a really good strobe disc and picked one up (here in Aus for AU$140 delivered).

I must say it is a really nice little tool. Super easy to use and read. Put in the battery and within ten seconds you know if your speed is out. Within 1 minute, you know by how much. Possibly a little pricey for what it is, but not expensive per se and if the strobe is as accurate as they say, well worth it for that.

I was a little surprised to find my LP12 about 0.4% slow, it is about four years since it was last serviced and not having a good strobe disc previously I have never checked it. Other adjustments, like the counter weight haven't moved an iota over the same period though. Maybe belt stretching?

Anyhow, this is the first time I've tried adjusting the LP12 speed myself and although generally quite technically competent I didn't want to get into a spiral of adjusting it further and further away from reality. However, it was dead easy and am now within 0.02% (based on the Kab disc). So if you have felt nervous about checking and adjusting the speed, I say get a good strobe disc and give it a go!

 

[Moomintroll]

Did you also clean your belt and pulley?

’troll

 

[akamatsu]

Could you hear a difference? Which power supply are you using?

 

[13th Duke of Wymbourne]

I love my KAB strobe. With a Linn belt I can get it absolutely stable. If you've seen the blue belt thread then that is ~0.8% slow and I prefer that to a spot-on Linn belt. So, I would say absolute speed accuracy may not be that important. A nice thing about the KAB is that the strobe markers are '33', '45' & '78' so you just look for the appropriate number to be still.

 

[ThomasOK]

If you want to get fancy about it you can get the Clearaudio Strobe LP and Strobe light, but they will set you back $75 and $250 respectively. I looked at the KAB strobe but as I had been used to working with the Linn strobe disc and alignment gauge I didn't want to give up the higher accuracy.

Higher accuracy? Yes, the KAB disc and strobe run at 60Hz, which also means you can use the disc by itself with neon or fluorescent lights (even possibly with incandescent but it would be hard to see). Linn strobe disc is designed for a 300Hz quartz strobe so it is five times more accurate. You can still get the Linn disc (I have them in the store and in my travel kit) but they don't list their strobe light on the parts list anymore (it was rather large and clunky as well as rather expensive). The Clearaudio is also a 300Hz quartz strobe and it works with the Linn disc, although the lines aren't as sharp and clear as with Linn's strobe light. But the Clearaudio strobe LP is unusual in two ways. One is that it has traditional 50 and 60Hz on one side and 300Hz on the other. The second way is that it is a 180 gram vinyl disk with a groove pressed into it. So if you are super concerned about stylus drag slowing down your platter you can set the speed with the cartridge tracking the groove! Does it make a difference? Not that I could detect the couple of times I tried it on an LP12 but YMMV.

 

[Solanum]

Did you also clean your belt and pulley?

’troll

Yes, I did indeed.

I didn't really do a before and after, but it was sounding great after and have been listening to lots of vinyl since! Expectation bias etc though.

6% is supposedly one tone, so 0.4 is a bit less than a tenth of a tone. I would have thought that someone with a good ear would easily hear that?

I have a lingo 2 (full size board, lk case).

 

[Solanum]

If you want to get fancy about it you can get the Clearaudio Strobe LP and Strobe light, but they will set you back $75 and $250 respectively. I looked at the KAB strobe but as I had been used to working with the Linn strobe disc and alignment gauge I didn't want to give up the higher accuracy.

Higher accuracy? Yes, the KAB disc and strobe run at 60Hz, which also means you can use the disc by itself with neon or fluorescent lights (even possibly with incandescent but it would be hard to see). Linn strobe disc is designed for a 300Hz quartz strobe so it is five times more accurate. You can still get the Linn disc (I have them in the store and in my travel kit) but they don't list their strobe light on the parts list anymore (it was rather large and clunky as well as rather expensive). The Clearaudio is also a 300Hz quartz strobe and it works with the Linn disc, although the lines aren't as sharp and clear as with Linn's strobe light. But the Clearaudio strobe LP is unusual in two ways. One is that it has traditional 50 and 60Hz on one side and 300Hz on the other. The second way is that it is a 180 gram vinyl disk with a groove pressed into it. So if you are super concerned about stylus drag slowing down your platter you can set the speed with the cartridge tracking the groove! Does it make a difference? Not that I could detect the couple of times I tried it on an LP12 but YMMV.

Funnily I enough was talking to my daughter about what I was doing and mentioned stylus drag, to which she suggested the disc should have a groove so that you could account for it.

I told her it was a great idea and she should make one and market it so she could become not rich. I'll have to let her know its already been done now!

BTW, surely the strobe frequency doesn't affect the accuracy? That will be dependant on how precise the strobe clock is? Mains power is terrible for that (forensics can use the inaccuracies to date video ), so always better to use a DC strobe I would think.

The frequency would give a precision limit though?

 

[ThomasOK]

Funnily I enough was talking to my daughter about what I was doing and mentioned stylus drag, to which she suggested the disc should have a groove so that you could account for it.

I told her it was a great idea and she should make one and market it so she could become not rich. I'll have to let her know its already been done now!

BTW, surely the strobe frequency doesn't affect the accuracy? That will be dependant on how precise the strobe clock is? Mains power is terrible for that (forensics can use the inaccuracies to date video ), so always better to use a DC strobe I would think.

The frequency would give a precision limit though?

I believe the theory is that a disc and strobe running at 300Hz would show 5 times the movement of the bars that one running at 60Hz would show with the same amount of speed error. This means that a line that is still is more precisely tuned in.

By the way, the cheap version of the Clearaudio strobe LP would be to put a 7" or 10" record on top of your strobe disc and play it while you are measuring. But I did think it was pretty cool of Clearaudio to come up with it.