A cheap neon light like the one in the link below?
Smart phone and speed app
- Thread starter DLStryker
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cafe latte
Addicted Member
I have a strob disc and a neon, but the Shanspin is so much easier and gives you so much more information.
Chris
cafe latte
Addicted Member
The Shanspin is very very light, far lighter than a smart phone and it is L shaped and it sits with the L against the spindle so its weight is very central and it is light enough not to be an issue.
You may feel it is too expensive for you but anyone who even as a hobby works on turntables it is a must have.
It does not just measure wow and flutter and speed, it plots a graph showing you what is going on.
A friend showed me a graph of his customers turntable and the Shanspin showed a once in a revolution bearing knock which he would have struggled to find without the Shanspin.
After he saw the graph he checked the bearing and fixed the issue and ran the test again and the bearing knock was gone.
If you have a DD it is probably no use to you but anyone with an idler drive which need fettling from time to time a,Shanspin will make that fettling a lot faster.
Chris
Some tables are more sensisitive to balance/weight. Mine reads .01 for speed and.01 for wow. It does not matter if I put the phone on the outer edge of the platter or sort of centered on top of a heavy record weight or if the stylus is up or down (when using record weight).
cafe latte
Addicted Member
Direct drives hate imbalances as the feedback loop is trying to correct consistency and it cant with the imbalance.
Chris
Jens Sinding
Active Member
In my experience I don’t find that belt drives are all that affected if you are very careful with the phone placement. I use the Nagaoka 45 adapter and an iPhone Pro Max (so fairly heavy) and mostly have a wow reading within specs, and often well below after restoring.
Obviously the YT practice of just throwing the phone at the platter and going with that result is bonkers.
That will definitely give the quartz and servo DD’s a huge advantage.
I use the Turntable Speed app as it gives you a nice graph that has helped me diagnose faults in the past.
Use one of those flat-top turntable weights to place the phone on to. Center the phone so it rotates as concentrically as possible to the spindle.
mr_petit
High on Vinyl
I also use a roll of tape.
And I usually balance the phone on a pen or so to roughly find the centre of gravity in both directions.
cafe latte
Addicted Member
You would be surprised. DDs hate the imbalance put a phone on a sl1200g and the wow and flutter is high when there us an imbalance. DDs are using a feedback loop and the imbalance totally messes with it.
Light platter tables like BO dont like the phone either.
Chris
You know my Technics 1200 MkII is rock-steady. I mean for hours and hours of use. I've never checked it or the Sony 2251 with a phone app.
The Sony may drift one strobe bar, over one LP side (it doesn't have Quartz Lock). Sorry, I know that I'm not being a diehard Hi-Fi OCD, but I don't worry about it. I have used a strobe light tester and disc, maybe once, when I was setting up the tables. The strobe is in a box, somewhere.
Don't tell anyone!
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Actually I work on 1200s all the time and don't see the issue. As I mentioned I center the phone so any imbalance is very much negligible. Compare the weight of a Technics heavy mat and a thick record to that of thin felt and a phone, just for the heck of it. It won't be significantly different.
I'll grant you that a lightweight B&O might be a bit discombobulated.
cafe latte
Addicted Member
I did not have a bad issue on my mk2 but I do on my G which being coreless has less torque which maybe causes the issue.Actually I work on 1200s all the time and don't see the issue. As I mentioned I center the phone so any imbalance is very much negligible. Compare the weight of a Technics heavy mat and a thick record to that of thin felt and a phone, just for the heck of it. It won't be significantly different.
I'll grant you that a lightweight B&O might be a bit discombobulated.
The Shaknspin does not worry the G though.
Chris
don't forget there are two parts to the speed.
1. accurate speed rotation with just the record spinning.
2. accurate speed rotation with the changing dynamic drag of the stylus while the record is playing.
The 2nd part is much tougher to do.
Maybe I got lucky . Shaknspin show on average 33.42 at 33.33 stationary strobes. Phyphox gyro data (phone app) gives the result below.
My phone vs. my 1980s JVC direct drive.
In general phones need to be checked against a reference like StrobeLight with known accuracy ( I use KAB strobe). To see the variation and change phones are OK, but the numbers are not scientific , they seem to use their on definitions .
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doctor fuse
Super Member
Once I calibrate my phone via a bubble level app verified with an actual level, I check the phone app (RPM & Wow) against the strobes on a Technics direct drive table. I also use the True Note app which emits a 50 or 60 Hz light with a strobe disc to double check that the RPM app is correct.
With all of these double checks I conclude that the app is very accurate.
With all of these double checks I conclude that the app is very accurate.
cafe latte
Addicted Member
Not really as the phone is different to the Shaknspin. Also which version of Shaknspin as the mk1 was not calibrated the later ones are and there is a calibration cycle every use?
Chris
Version 1 , so no real calibration. Is has always been off by 0.28%. Using an expensive Technics as reference , and strobe with quarts controllled light consistently gives 33.42 at stationary strobes. I have been using Shaknspin for years on a bunch if Technics. Allways the same deviation. I cannot believe avery technics I test is off on speed so I have chosen trust the Technics and strobedisk and accept that MY Shaknspin has a constant deviation
while the phyphox on iPhone 17e gives 33.33 on the my 2 DD s and strobe
cafe latte
Addicted Member
Yes version 1 are all off, current Shaknspin is spot on
