When researching the best methods for turntable setup to be used in our instructional video I fell into the trap that almost all audiophiles I know do. On the video I neglected to check the speed accuracy and stability. This is something I had done when the deck originally arrived but overlooked in the video itself!
I know may audiophiles who spend hours setting up their turntable to get the maximum performance from it only to make this oversight as well. You may say about the speed control systems on modern decks are very accurate and don’t need checking but you would be surprised. A lot of improvements experienced in turntable performance can be attributed to improvements in speed stability and accuracy so it is well worth checking.

Once you have gone through the process of checking or replacing the bearing oil, cleaning the belt clean adjusting the arm VTA, Cartridge alignment, azimuth, tracking weight and anti skate, surely 60 seconds to check the speed would not do any harm. Most  simply take it for granted that the speed will be accurate or they use the printed freebee disc they got with some old turntable 20 years ago and with whatever light happens to be in the room at the time (compact  fluorescent lamps flash at an unrelated rate so are useless for strobe illumination by the way).

At a recent hifi show I came across Keystobe a small British company producing very high quality strobe disc and lights. They are by far the best disc I have come across and they do a variety of different models to suit your deck. Their site is informative and very helpful and because they do a great job of explaining about the different discs and lights as well as types of deck I don’t feel the need to elaborate on their text. You can glean the information you require and can buy them from the below link. Well worth the modest investment.