New acrylic platter for the SL-1200/1210

[chris@panteg]

{discussion moved from elsewhere}

Hi Chris,

Glad you enjoyed the system. Del and I certainly enjoyed having Alex and you round. It was a pleasure

If I didn't have other things going on during the remaining weekends of the month, we could've got the needle-drops done sooner, as the bits needed should all be here by next week.

However, let's hope it's like the saying goes: 'all good things come to those who wait'....

I think the attenuators should work ok, but if not, then it'll simply be a case of using one of my MM cartridges instead, without the need for an SUT to complicate matters.



Chris, if you need any cartridge leads, let me know. I've got loads of the buggers! Hope you sort things out soon

Btw, I've been following the new platter thread on the Timestep forum with interest...

I presume that everyone knows that the acrylic platter has been designed by Arthur K, from Funk?

Design-wise, it has bugger all to do with Dave C.

Marco.

Is it Acrylic ? I thought it might be Lexan , if it is Acrylic , £500 is ridiculous IMHO , there is a difference and if he's gone for the former then i feel its a chance missed , cos IMHO Lexan is far superior !

Doesn't surprise me about Arthur

[Marco]

Hi Chris,

Don't quote me on the acrylic bit, as I'm not sure about that. It simply looks like acrylic, therefore I referred to it as such. I didn't ask Arthur about what the platter was made of when I spoke with him the other day.

Why not ask Dave what it's made of? I'm sure he'll give you a straight answer, as usual!

Doesn't surprise me about Arthur...

Indeed. The fact is, Dave doesn't have the ability to design and produce a platter. He's a sales and marketing man with some test equipment

Arthur's sending me one of the new platters to assess in a few weeks. I'll be testing it against the Mike New one, and in due course, reporting my findings here. So look out for that one.......... We don't miss a trick on AoS!

Marco.

[pure sound]

Is it Acrylic ? I thought it might be Lexan , if it is Acrylic , £500 is ridiculous IMHO , there is a difference and if he's gone for the former then i feel its a chance missed , cos IMHO Lexan is far superior !

Doesn't surprise me about Arthur

The problem with making such platters is the need to start from an 8' x 4' sheet. A sheet of 25mm acrylic is expensive enough but can be sawn into 32 platter squares before machining. The cost per platter can be kept reasonable. However, check out the cost of a similarly sized sheet of 25mm Lexan

The platter pictured on the Timestep forum appears to be acrylic. It must have to incorporate the magnet ring etc from the original platter somehow.
I suppose this is taking the deck in the direction of the Goldmund Studio or Brinkmann Bardo (which isn't necessarily a bad thing)

[chris@panteg]

Hi Chris,

Don't quote me on the acrylic bit, as I'm not sure about that. It simply looks like acrylic, therefore I referred to it as such. I didn't ask Arthur about what the platter was made of when I spoke with him the other day.

Why not ask Dave what it's made of? I'm sure he'll give you a straight answer, as usual!



Indeed. The fact is, Dave doesn't have the ability to design and produce a platter. He's a sales and marketing man

Arthur's sending me one of the new platters to assess in a few weeks, so I'll be testing it against the Mike New one, and in due course, reporting my findings here, so look out for that one.......... We don't miss a trick on AoS!

Marco.

Its not what you know eh , blimey if it is Lexan , then i think it could be amazing , it works brilliantly on the Voyd and i don't see why not on the 1210/1200 , if its Acrylic , well it could still be good but.....

I must confess to being very interested in this .

[chris@panteg]

The problem with making such platters is the need to start from an 8' x 4' sheet. A sheet of 25mm acrylic is expensive enough but can be sawn into 32 platter squares before machining. The cost per platter can be kept reasonable. However, check out the cost of a similarly sized sheet of 25mm Lexan

The platter pictured on the Timestep forum appears to be acrylic. It must have to incorporate the magnet ring etc from the original platter somehow.
I suppose this is taking the deck in the direction of the Goldmund Studio or Brinkmann Bardo (which isn't necessarily a bad thing)

Hi Guy

I guess its down to quantities as well , Project sell bucket loads of decks with acrylic platter's .

[Marco]

Hi Guy,

Nice to see you popping in again

I'll find out if it's acrylic or not and report back... Like you though, I suspect that it is. It'll certainly be interesting comparing it to the Mike New one.

And I PROMISE everyone that I'll give an unbiased verdict. As much as everyone knows I'm not Dave's biggest fan, I simply wouldn't allow that to cloud my opinion, as I'd like to think I have some credibility to protect.

If the new 'Timestep' platter is better, in my opinion, on my T/T in the context of my system (therefore what I report as usual will not in any way be definitive), then I'll say so.

However, there will be no quick decision on this, as getting a proper handle on how platters (and mats) affect the musical reproduction of a turntable takes time and frequent switching back and forth to one's current reference, for comparison purposes. I also, of course, still have the original Technics platter, so that will be included in the equation.

If the 'Timestep' platter is acrylic, it won't surprise me, as that will have allowed Dave to obtain the profit margin he wanted to make originally, selling Mike's platter, which of course wasn't possible when he stole his design and tried to have a high quality aluminium platter produced in the UK (the whole reason for their fall-out).

I'll confirm later what the 'Timestep' platter is actually made from when I have the info.

Marco.

[YNWaN]

If Guy thinks it is acrylic it probably is - Lexan seems to have a grey (colour, not sound) hint to it when I have encountered it. I have to say that my own experiments with acrylic have not been at all promisiing and I have found it to have a very distictive sonic signature (coloration). However, I can see the point in trying to keep the rotational mass low.

I suppose this is taking the deck in the direction of the Goldmund Studio or Brinkmann Bardo (which isn't necessarily a bad thing)

I thought the platter on the Bardo was aluminium (with the option of the glass mat)?

[Spectral Morn]

Looks very interesting....



I liked the sound of the Pink Triangles and Voyd TT that had light weight platters......still miss the Voyd Valdi I had.


Regards D S D L

[Wakefield Turntables]

Those feet look crap to me!

[Spectral Morn]

Those feet look crap to me!

True but in fairness might be very good with the Technics. I use Isonoes myself but have not tried those particular feet, so can't say more than I think the Isonoes look much better.


Regards D S D L