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Comment by Hnrobert42

5 years ago

What is ‘wow’ as it relates to vinyl? I tried searching the web for it, but just got a bunch of unrelated results?

It literally sounds like guitar wow pedel when it happens. It's due to the fluctuation of the speed of the turntable.

In that video the turntable seems like Audio Technica's Technics 1200sl knock-off version which is quite infamous for instability, it seems fine in short video though. Very impressive nonetheless.

I think flutter is the same thing, the inability to maintain constant and precise angular velocity.

  • Wow is slow frequency speed variation. Flutter is fast speed variation.

    To an audio person they are distinct sound artifacts. It was common to listen to recordings of pianos in the past to hear these because the piano was the only common instrument that had very solid pitch. (invariant frequency(