As a design, engineering and 3D printing company we have the opportunity to meet fantastic entrepreneurs and business owners and often we become fully immersed in the projects we work on with them; The UFO Turntable Strobe is one of these projects. The genius behind this Kickstarter project is Jim Hagerman, and we previously had the opportunity to work with him on his widely successful Bugle2: A DIY Phono Preamp project. When he approached us with this new project, the UFO Turntable Strobe, we were on board!

Jim has been working on this project for years and was facing the challenge of keeping the design and production costs manageable. We were able to assist Jim by designing and prototyping the unit to not only be visually appealing, but extremely cost effective as well.

What is it? The UFO is a self-contained strobe light and dot pattern that indicates when your turntable is spinning at the correct speed, whether 33.3 or 45 RPM. It sits on the center spindle and works with any turntable. The unique design not only looks superb, it also has crystal-controlled accuracy. The push-button on top steps through the various operating modes.

Who needs it? Anyone with a turntable! If you want to know that your table is accurate or if it has a speed adjustment, the UFO is exactly what you need. And it doesn’t cost any more than a traditional two-piece pattern disc and strobe light.

Why do you need it? Maybe you just like the way it looks with the room lights off – glowing and hovering in space above your LP. Maybe you’re a DJ working night clubs and want to set yourself apart. Or perhaps you just care a lot about sound and try to get the most out of your vinyl playback system, implementing every tweak possible to minimize distortions. If you have a heavy duty turntable with a massive platter, I suggest getting the weighted version, as the extra mass and damping can improve the noise floor of your system.

View the official Kickstarter UFO: A DIY Turntable Strobe page.