Late Beogram 4002 and the 4004 (Types 551x and 552x), which have DC platter motors instead of the earlier synchronous AC motors usually suffer from dry motor bearings and/or bad spark snubbers. This often causes very noticeable RPM variations that ruin the listening experience. These motors can be restored by oil-infusing under vacuum, but even when restored, they do not measure up to the original AC platter motors or the later linear drives in the Beogram 8000 and 8002. Often there is significant RPM drift due to temperature variations and other environmental influences, and the analog feedback-based RPM control circuit causes fairly strong wow and flutter compared to the AC-motor Types and the 8000 series.
Once I realized the relative inferiority of the DC drive a few years ago (and also being slightly annoyed by restoring one DC platter motor after another..;-), I started working on an adequate replacement for these motors. I desired an upgrade for DC Type Beograms that would make them as good as the other models. This took me on a long and pretty interesting journey exploring different motor types and control approaches.
I finally settled on a brushless three-phase motor. The motor in the final design is custom manufactured for best performance and it is synchronously driven. The control system is able to measure the actual RPM of the platter, which enabled an auto-calibration feature that allows precise RPM adjustment.
I made a (rather long...sorry!...;-) video that explains the in and outs of the SyncDrive, demonstrates installation, use and gives a discussion of its performance relative to the other Beograms of the day. Enjoy:
The SyncDrive is available via the Beolover Store. Send an email to beolover@gmail.com if you are interested/have questions.
If you rather read than watch: Here is a short summary of the most important aspects:
The SyncDrive is an easy plug-and-play installation without the need for soldering (see video below). This is how the SyncDrive looks installed in lieu of the original motor:
The board bolts directly to the mounting posts of the original DC motor, and the electrical connections are made by a single wire harness that connects to the main board:
This picture indicates the essential features of the SyncDrive:
The speed sensor measures the platter speed from below, using the platter ribs in the same way the BeoloverRPM device uses them from above.
The user interface is activated by pressing any of the four buttons while the platter rotates. Once pressed, the indicator LEDs come alive and the interface is ready to interact. The buttons allow automatic calibration of the RPM and manual adjustment (33 and 45 are independently adjusted/calibrated depending on the actually selected RPM of the Beogram). Furthermore, the influence of the RPM panel above the keypad can be deactivated if desired. This can be useful if there are issues with the potentiometers in this panel, or if accidental RPM change is to be prevented.
I characterized the performance of the SyncDrive using the BeoloverRPM device, which allows precise RPM measurements and log them over time.
This shows a direct wow and flutter comparison between a restored DC-motor and the SyncDrive:
The measurement covers about 60 turns of the platter. The 'noise' in these spectra is caused by small variations of the spacing between the platter ribs. Since the BeoloverRPM device measures the time between the passing of ribs under its sensor, slight variations of the spacing introduce a measurement artifact. The two shown measurements were performed in the same Beogram with the same platter, i.e. have the exact same platter pattern. This allows a direct comparison. The red curve was measured with the SyncDrive installed, while the blue curve was measured with a restored original DC motor. The 'beating' pattern of the blue curve is an indication of the analog control system acting to keep the RPM constant. In essence, the RPM of the original motor 'meanders' around the 33.33 set point in an attempt to stay close. All feedback based control systems operate that way: The actual RPM is compared with the setpoint, and when the RPM is too low, the motor speeds up until it is measured too high, then the process reverses. This causes a wavy trajectory of the actual RPM around the set RPM. The art of feedback systems is basically to keep such variations at a minimum. The analog control system of the 4002 does a pretty decent job, but it is no match for the precision of synchronous motors, which do not rely on feedback, but rather on a very stable oscillator that determines the RPM top-down, and the motor simply 'obeys'. Precise oscillations can be generated with high accuracy, which makes such motors superior as platter motors.
This can be clearly seen when comparing the performance of the earlier AC platter motors found in Beogram 4002 550x Types and the original 4000. This graph shows the above two curves in comparison with a curve measured on a restored Beogram 4000, as well as the later 8000 and 8002 types:
The pink curve was measured on the 4000. It is clear that the performance is much better than the DC motor, which is a direct result of the synchronous operation of the can stack AC motor of the 4000, which is driven by an analog Wien precision oscillator. The slight waviness of the curve is most likely the result of the elastic coupling between the motor pulley and the platter causing a weak 'jo-jo effect'.
It is interesting to compare the performance of the belt drives with the later linear motors of the Beogram 8000 and 8002. Sonavor kindly contributed the green curves when I sent him the redesigned BeoloverRPM for testing. The overall RPM stability seems very similar to the 4000 and the SyncDrive. This is interesting since the linear drive in the 800x is a feedback based system. Here we see that feedback does not need to be bad if it is well designed. The linear drive benefits from the absence of a belt, which takes the elastic coupling out of the equation. A digital control system coupled with high-resolution feedback from an ~80 slots tacho disk seems to be sufficient for a fairly precise control that is much better than what was achieved with the analog control of DC motors. It is interesting to compare the two green curves: The much smoother 'platter pattern' of the 8002 is a result of its different platter design: The earlier 8000 still used a 4002 style platter, and consequently its platter pattern is similar to the measurements on the 400x. The (likely) etched platter of the 8002 seems to have more smoothly varying spacings between the platter ribs. I do not know how they really made these platters, but the smooth variations suggest a projection aberration during pattern generation for the etching process.
It is satisfying to see that the SyncDrive is matching up fairly well with the early 4000 and the later 800x.
When it comes to long-term stability the SyncDrive is actually better than the early 4000:
While the 4000 has a much better wow and flutter than the DC motor 4002, it has similarly strong longterm RPM drift. This is not a surprise, since its Wien oscillator is analog, and therefore also more easily affected by temperature variations. The SyncDrive compares favorably with a much smaller drift, courtesy of its digital control system. Unfortunately, we were not able to perform such measurements on Beogram 8000 and 8002s (yet!...;-). They shut down after 30 min if they recognize that no record is being played. I suspect that their RPM stability is also pretty good due to their digital control system.
In summary, I think the SyncDrive turned out to be a nice upgrade for any DC-motor Beogram, bringing them to AC-motor Beogram level (and likely even 8000 and 8002 level in terms of RPM stability).
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