| Wow and Flutter Explained... Back ________________________________________________________________________________ "I'm tired of people bashing Stanton or other brands becuase of their wow and flutter, and what makes me laugh, and desperate some times, is how people just talk without knowing anything about what they're going on about. Wow and flutter is how the sound speeds up or slows down. It can usually be heard as wobbles on the sound. It is meassured where the ear is most sensitive at 3-4 khz, therefore the W that stands for weighted in the WRMS term. RMS means root means square, and if you took maths or physics at college you know what it is. Basically it is the means squared of a senoidal wave, in this case, the speeding up or slowing down of the sound from the reference speed. It is very very complex to measure it by hand calculation so measuring and testing equipment is needed. Idealy the forumla is: sqrt(1/(b-a) * int(f^2)dt,a-b Where the F is the senoidal function from point A to B in time. Usually from reference point to a maximum or minimum point. Here is my point: After some math, some equation solvers (maple6), after pluging in the numbers in the RMS using as a reference, the function; (sin(x)*sin(x**1/2)*sin(x/4) ...which i'm supposing to be that the speed deviation on a turntable. (The equation is just my selection, it could be a very complex one). If you have a song at 140 BPM on a Stanton turntable with a maximum of 0.2% of wow and flutter (Note: This is the Stanton turntable wow and flutter and it is stated as maximum, not as an unknown, probally minimum, as ANOTHER brand you all know). Now, because it's a RMS value, the maximum or minimum speed deviation that can be registered will be 0.0062826 beats in a time interval or 0.372817 minutes, that equals to 0.01685169 BPM shift, or 0.012036% of maximum speed change in a minute, so now you are starting to freak out and scream, but there is more; That maximum speed shift is theoretical, that means, tjat if everythying goes absolutely wrong for 0.3728 minutes in time diferentials, your song will shift by 0.01685 beats. Ok, that would be equal to winning the Lottery each time consecutively for the rest of your life, which isn't likely! What happens in turntables and other electrical equipment is that the shifts happen in very very small amounts of time (time diferential, an infinitly small amount of time), that means that it is not always positive or negative. It goes up and down from the reference speed, (140 BPM for us right now), so at a given time you could have a +0.01% deviation, next a -0.002%, next a +0.004%, next a +0.0002% and next a -0.01056% in a time diferential. The only time when this can effect you is when for example you have positive speed variations for many many many time diferentials. These speed variations can be due to uneven friction in the motor, uneven electromagnetic field on the motor (caused by many many factors), or simply, by changes in your power supply voltage caused by your electrical company. I will not go into calculating the average voltage shifts in your AC outlet but they will effect the Technics, or the Gemini's. This is why very very high end stuff ($50,000+ / £35,000+) use expensive and adecuate power supply regulators. This all happens very very fast and you generally will not notice such a small speed variation. Meaning? You don't need to worry about it. Get it now? So, if your worried about the wow and flutter of the Stanton's or any other turntable..... geez..... Ok, now this all was done mathematically with scientific PROOF... you don't need to bea rocket scientist to figure it all out. I made this to prove a point and because I got tired of laughing at ignorant people that talk about something they don't even know. I hope this ends the debate about wow and flutter in turntables especially the Technics Vs The World in wow and flutter. And this is not my opinion as most of you have stated in the hundreds of posts i've read on DJ Source. Author: Javier Villarreal (Zeth) |