What do you mean you “heard” the turntable

Bottom line for me is that it is entirely possible to “hear” which of two turntables in an unfamiliar system does a better job with the rhythm in the music. Although more difficult and trickier it is possible, to a degree, to learn to recognize and extrapolate from how superior or inferior rhythmic accuracy might be affecting our perception of the tonal character that we hear.

I think Frogman is right.....
The ability of a turntable to maintain 'constant' and 'accurate' speed is able to be heard.....even if you're not a trained musician like Frogman 🤗
I have two turntables in my System (both with three tonearms).....one is a current model German-made belt-drive whilst the other is a 35 year-old vintage Japanese High-End Direct-Drive.
The belt-drive deck is nice, relaxed and tuneful......but does not possess the 'speed', 'grip' and knife-edge 'realism' of the direct-drive.

It's entirely possible though....that if you throw enough money, weight and technology into the construction of an uber-belt-drive deck.....it may approach the 'constancy' and 'accuracy' of the very best direct-drives.

As far as the question.... what are the 'limits' of our hearing ability to detect such minute speed variations?
I, like Frogman....don't know 🤪

last_lemming: "I think maybe you didn’t read the original post. Nobody questions that one can hear differences. We are questioning how one can say they hear a new component in a new system and in a new room and contribute the qualities they are hearing specifically to that component and only that component and then recommended that component based on that unique situation. There’s no way to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The only true way to compare a component to another component is to have it done in the same room at the same time all other variables being equal. "

Okay, but with due respect that is not new.

Most competent reviews take an approach that changes one thing and otherwise retains the same context. Swap out the 'table but keep the 'arm and cartridge and everything else constant. There are certain protocols involved in making a reasonable comparison. Casual observers may not follow those, but that too is not new.  It's pretty easy to separate the wheat from the chaff with a few simple questions.

The fundamental job of a turntable is to rotate the record at 33-1/3 rpm and to do that with minimal noise.  It turns out those functions are not that easy to achieve.

It's pretty amazing how adept is our hearing mechanism at recognizing speed differences when presented with such and just how much difference stable accuracy makes to music. 

Pitch deviation is an old-world gauge of stable accuracy - our ears are far more sensitive. Our ear/brain ability to differentiate tiny temporal differences has developed over eons; it is a survival skill.  Music occurs in time and it is the turntable that literally creates the time in which music is reproduced in our rooms. 

It is pretty straightforward to hear differences between two 'tables, each with nominally high stable accuracy where one of those 'tables is measurably more accurate than the other.  Wrt @halcro 's comment, I don't think we've yet reached the boundaries of detection.

I don't think we've yet reached the boundaries of detection.

👍

jtimothya, we are in violent agreement, as they say.  Nice post.

I recently exchanged a IFi phono for an Allnic 1201 and the difference is easy to discern.  I recently tried a MoFi UltraDeck with the ultra tracker cartridge in my system, I liked my really old sansui 2050c with Hana SL cartridge much than the Mofi setup.  Though captive cables do give you that little extra radio transmission that creeps into the output (ugh)....
oh, adding a van Evers power conditioner made the whole thing much quieter, heard that right away !