-
Clamp / puck?
Having seen a couple of the TT's at the Epping back off with them I decided to make one. Well Personified's cost something like £160 if I remember / heard correctly [shocked smiley]
I_should_coco's was not quite as much as that but still in the 25 2nd hand LP's range.
I had a NAD clamp in the early 80's - can't say I could hear it making any difference on that system.
Time to update and try again...
The basis for my clamp is an old steel pulley wheel I got in a box of bits with my 1940's Southbend lathe. It is just the right diameter / height. Was a bit light at 700g.
I melted some ex wheel balancing lead weights / poured into the base and then polyester resin filled it to make a sealed unit. That brought it up to the 1000g I was looking for - Is this too heavy? Mr Coco mentioned his was in this region.
Can always machine out a bit If it is.
The centre hole was a bit of a challenge I could not get a perfectly true grip of it in the chuck (long story my larger piece chuck jaws are not very good) so abandoned drilling or machining out in favour of centering the puck with a larger hole drilled right though, around the spindle of my record cleaning deck.
The spindle and centre inch of rubber mat was smeared with Vaseline and then I poured resin in. Let it set and this morning I had a perfectly spindle sized/centred hole.
A bit of Plastic padding to fill in a few pockmarks and it will be ready for trimming the base with felt. Hope to listening test it tonight if it works well / i like it spray finishing tonight.
Will post some pics of the finished article later.
More to follow.
-
Very inventive Steve. I'm always a little concerned about the main bearing thrust pad with record clamps that rely on weight, 1Kg is quite a lot of mass to add...
I like the look of the Souther Clever clamp (http://www.needledoctor.com/Online-Store/Record-Clamps) but have never tried one so don't know how effective it is...
-
Yeah - I to am kinda thinking 1kg is a bit heavy. Will try it first as is and then perhaps make another at 0.5kg - this is where most of the commercial ones seem to be weighing in at.
I will check with Mr Coco and Personif and see what theirs really weigh.
-
The Micro-Seiki ST-10 is pretty much exactly 1kg according to my kitchen scales. :)
-
Clearaudio put a Souther Clever clamp in the box with all new turntables, so I tried it,
not impressed , it didn't have much grip and there is no weight to it. I use a Michell clamp.
-
Well, I started out with 1kg - seems too heavy. Think I can see the edge of the record being pushed up as the weight goes on - nope not think - I can...
This depends on the type of mat I guess - Mr Coco's copper mat has a very slight dishing for the label and that is it. My beloved PL-71 mat has a bit deeper recess I think and only 4 sets of rings the inner ring being only a single 2mm wide or so band.
Popped the lead out - now 700g. Tried again.
Test tracks Melody Gardot - My one and only thrill.
Hmm like some of what the weight is doing - vocal a bit more focused - daughter (13 yr old ears) said vocal was clearer / more to the fore.
Some of the brush work seemed less airy and with less feeling though. Not sure what it is doing to the rest of it - like them both in their ways.
Next stop a test on a 0.5kg weight.
per-Sony-fied mailed me saying his super duper puck was 315grams. He chose that weight for his LP-12 having tried a few others.
-
Made one that comes out at 457g.
Did some listening on the same album but on the Stax this time.
The puck takes away some of the airy emotion on the vocal. Not sure I can accept that. The rest is pretty much similar. Odd.
Regarding the bending of the record - I put my dial gauge on the lead in edge and low and behold a 180g record moves up at the edge by 0.02mm. This was with the weight at 750g.
Tried it at various places on the record to eliminate the effect slight warping might have - same result.
Have not tried the test the lighter puck or on a boggo thin disc.
Ah well - off to bed now...
-
I've been trying an outer record weight to flatten some of my LPs ,still not sure what I
think of it yet.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...pfm/outer2.jpg
-
Yep I've seen / heard those in use. I can help thinking on the PL-71 it would deaden the sound / remove emotion.
That's been the effect of both the Funk Achromat and the centre puck.
Need to test some more on speakers but I think they will confirm what I heard
on the Stax...
As with the Funk mat tests I did some of the tinnier recorded stuff - Tommy Thw Who and early Beatles for example might actually benefit from a bit of deadening / calming down.
That's the evenings entertainment lined up.
-
Air arm update :)
I've done it at last - Put the Air arm on the PL-71
http://inlinethumb44.webshots.com/42...600x600Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb12.webshots.com/43...600x600Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb12.webshots.com/44...600x600Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb41.webshots.com/43...600x600Q85.jpg
The results are really rather good - sort of best of both worlds - PL-71's musicality + parallel air accuracy and lack of tracking distortion.
Will live with it for a while and see.
