Mike New platter - first impressions...
Ok, guys, I was up until 2am this morning (!) listening to music with the MN platter in place, using the Bruil record weight in conjunction with it for the moment. As you'll have probably guessed, I wouldn't have been up until that time had I not been enjoying what I was hearing - and enjoy it I did.....:eek:
The first thing you notice when placing a record on the MN platter, and the Bruil weight put on top, is how much less the Techie now looks like a 'DJ deck'. Not that this bothered me before, although I never liked the look of the strobe markings, but the SL-1210 now appears altogether more purposeful and serious, signalling in advance its menacing musical intent!
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One of the main reasons why I wanted Mike's platter was to remove the adverse sonic effect of the stock platter being so flimsy and resonant (even when some types of mat are used), and once a record together with the Bruil weight are placed on top, you are met with a dull thud when rapping the side of the platter with your knuckles, therefore in terms of that aspect things, it was job done. I also had an inkling how sonically significant that was going to be....
As soon as the stylus hit the record (on The Pretty Things 'Midnight to Six' album), noise from the lead-in groove was significantly less than I'd heard before, thus allowing the music to emerge from a quieter backdrop, and so when it issued forth, what I was presented with took my breath away!
The sonic presentation of the SL-1210 now has a power and authority, together with a sense of ease and lack of strain that I've never before experienced. As good as the deck was previously, with it already being extensively modified and upgraded elsewhere, when the stock platter was in place (with any mat), there was a tendency for some material to become 'shouty' and for the overall presentation to lack a little subtlety - and with it the sense that music was being artificially processed, rather than delivered as a genuinely credible and real performance.
This rather annoying 'signature' had always been present no matter the effect of upgrading the PSU, tonearm, mat or feet - until now.
With the Mike New platter in place, gone is the somewhat 'clangy' and sometimes slightly 'over-insistent' presentation of the Techie, and with it the tendency for voices to sound 'shiny' and a little metallic. What one gets now is real depth, emotional expression and tonal colour, which when framed within the significant reduction in the T/Ts overall noisefloor, combines to create a palpable sense of realism.
Quite simply, with the Mike New platter in place, the Techie has finally 'grown up' and thrown off the shackles of its somewhat uncouth exuberance, and more than ever now, has become a genuine (and serious) hi-end turntable. It is now crystal clear to me just how much the flimsy and resonant 'bell-like' stock platter influences the sonic performance of the superb Technics motor unit, and how this effect manifests itself on music.
I feel that this is where the real sonic improvements of the Mike New platter lie (greater mechanical integrity and lower resonance), rather than anything necessarily to do with increased mass, as it fundamentally addresses the deficiencies in the design of the stock platter. Remove those, and the superb Quartz controlled D/D motor and control circuitry take the extra mass of the MN platter in their stride (from initial start-up onwards) and deliver a musical presentation with uncanny realism that engages and beguiles one in a way which almost defies belief.
As such, it is difficult to believe that any turntable which costs less than a footballer's wife's entire handbag and shoe collection could reproduce music more faithfully, and the Mike New platter plays an integral role in achieving this. Make no mistake: the fundamentally beneficial sonic effects of this platter are immediately obvious and cannot be replicated with upgrades to the T/T elsewhere.
If achieving the ultimate performance from your SL-1200 or 1210 is something you genuinely aspire to, then fitting an MN platter is a prerequisite, presuming you have already fitted an MN bearing and are using a high current capacity PSU, such as the Paul Hynes SR5-21, or similar. Further enquiries regarding the platter should be made by email to Mike New at: mhnew@bigpond.net.au
It'll be interesting to find out if the annealed copper mat on top of my MN platter provides any additional sonic benefits over the standard version, which based on my experiences of the superb standalone copper T/T mat, I suspect will be the case. However, all will be revealed in that respect when I go down to Martin's place and we do some back-to-back comparisons.
Ok, it's time for some lunch now, and later more extended listening, where I will begin my in-depth comparisons of the MN platter against the Oyaide mat and record stabiliser combo, and also the copper mat, using the stock platter. I will also try the Oyaide mat with stabiliser on top of the MN platter, the effect of which should be interesting........
Hopefully those of you who are thinking of upgrading the Techie mats or platters on your own decks will have found my observations interesting so far! :cool:
Marco.
