The arrival of a wee brush, and a great tweak for Techy fans...
Guys,
For now, due to shortage of time, I'll keep this report fairly brief, although I may add to it later....
However, this is simply to say that I've recently discovered a great, and fairly inexpensive, tweak for all Techy fans, but particularly those who have Mike New platters and who currently use a heavy record weight or record clamp with them.
Prompted by Andr'e, during a conversation we were having about something else via PM, I bought a vintage Michell clamp from eBay, along with a Transrotor sweep brush, which arrived yesterday:
I rather like the retro touch the sweep brush has added to the Techy (along with the vintage Michell clamp), and it's pretty effective, too!
However, the sweep brush is really just a bit of fun - the real star of the show is the Michell clamp (which incidentally I've now sold to somone else on AoS, although I'll be obtaining another vintage version very soon!) It really is somewhat of a revelation....
For a little while now I've had the niggling feeling that using my Bruil record weight with the MN platter was perhaps just over-egging the mass a touch by excessively increasing the load on the bearing, and consequently causing an over-damped effect, making the sound of the Techy ever so slightly 'thickened' and 'muddied', with slightly plummy bass on certain material.
Therefore, when Andr'e directed me to the Michell clamp, I thought to myself: 'hey, you know what, that might just work!', as it was much lighter than the Bruil, and of course it also would also produce a slight warp flattening effect, due to its clamping mechanism, which ever since I heard the sonic effect of this with the Oyaide weight and mat, I've desperately sought to replicate....
Anyway, when the clamp arrived, I duly fitted it and spun some of my favourite tunes - WHOA - what a difference! Gone was that slightly over-damped quality the Bruil was causing, not through any fault in its own design, but because I was already using a high-mass platter, and the extra mass it contributed on top of that, was simply a little too much.
The sound now opened up considerably, bass had tightened nicely and now had more 'swing' and tune, the top end was sweeter and more extended, and most significantly, the soundstage seemingly had grown in width and depth, as if someone had hit one of those 'stereo-wide' buttons on 1970s and 80s ghetto-blasters. Rhythms were now more infectiously syncopating, and overall, detail retrieval had notably increased. Quite simply, music played now gelled and bopped along better than ever!
In short, this is a no-brainer upgrade for all Techy fans, for something like £26, and particularly those who use Mike New platters. The improvement the Michell clamp brings to the party isn't simply because of its low-mass, but also because of the sonic benefits of its warp flattening effect. Up until now I hadn't really considered this since rejecting the Oyaide mat and weight for the MN platter, although at the time recognising the addictive sonic qualites the warp flattening effect of the Oyaide had when playing my favourite records.
Therefore, one can now (almost) get the best of both worlds by using a (current edition) Michell clamp with an MN platter, together with a mat of your choice. I say "almost" because the Oyaide mat and weight still ultimately do a better job of flattening warped records, but the Michell record clamp certainly performs a vital and cost-effective role in obtaining even further superb performance from the SL-1200/1210.
As such, I have no hesitation in thoroughly recommending what I consider as the best record clamp I've heard for use with the Techy, with or without an MN platter. So, folks, if my ramblings here have whetted your appetite, order a Michell clamp with confidence from our very own hifi dave, and hear your favourite records wonderfully reproduced like never before!
All enquires please to: www.radlettaudio.co.uk
Marco.
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Ok, maybe a tad on the small side 
Cheers in advance...
Isaac Bashevis Singer