New acrylic platter for the SL-1200/1210

[Marco]

Returning to the new platter, I can now confirm that it is 'museum-grade' acrylic.

I'm sure that this will be a huge improvement on the stock Techy platter, and so I look forward to testing it

Marco.

[YNWaN]

'Museum grade' acrylic - I've used a lot of acrylic in the past and I've never heard that description before! If museums do require a particular quality I would have thought it was transparency - not all that relevant in this case.
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Marco, the easiest way to record your vinyly is to take the output from your pre-amp into somrthinh like the Rowland A2D/D2A and then plug it vias USB into a laptop. Then use Audacity as the recording software - job done.

[Marco]

Hi Mark,

I didn't go into detail about it when I spoke with Arthur, but that's what he said it was made from. It's a lot of money for acrylic; although I've been assured that it's a high quality item, finished to a superb standard.

Knowing Arthur, I don't doubt it. I'm expecting good things from this platter, so I'm sure it will be an excellent alternative to the Mike New one.

Choice is good!

It also shows that more and more designers and influential people are recognising that the Techy is a serious audiophile turntable, and so anything that keeps it in the 'limelight', so to speak, is good in my book

Marco.

[Marco]

Marco, the easiest way to record your vinyly is to take the output from your pre-amp into somrthinh like the Rowland A2D/D2A and then plug it vias USB into a laptop. Then use Audacity as the recording software - job done.

Thanks, Mark. I'll bear that in mind. However, since I've already bought the EMU sound-card, which I've been informed is good, I'd like to persevere with that for the moment.

If in the end it doesn't work properly in my set-up, then I'll obtain the Rowland you mention, and do it that way

Marco.

[YNWaN]

Here ya go, found this description:

Perspex VA Museum Grade is a colourless, cast acrylic sheet with integral UV protection and is suitable for specialist glazing applications and display cases. Perspex® VE is characterised by a slight yellow hue, derived from the UV inhibitor which acts to block out 99.99% of UV rays and is intended more for the protection of highly sensitive museum exhibits.

Doesn't seem to contradict my earlier thoughts.
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Sorry, didn't realise you had bought the soundcard - thought you were borrowing it.

[Marco]

No, but it doesn't mean that it's not a good material from which to make a turntable platter... I suspect that 'museum-grade' quality acrylic was chosen simply to ensure a nicer finish. It might also be better to work with.

Would you like me to obtain more info? It's not a problem

TBH, the only thing I'm interested in is how it sounds!

Marco.

[pure sound]

"museum grade!" I can imagine the reaction of plastics stockholders (or indeed engineering companies) if I called specifying "museum grade" acrylic for a particular job

Given that the platter pictured appears to have been gritblasted to opaque, it rather defeats the object of having fine optical characteristics.

Marco. A CD recorder is as easy to use as a cassette deck. The Tascam one is handy as it will write to bog standard blank 'data' recordable CD's which are as cheap as chips nowadays. Once you've made a few recordings to a disk, you finalise it (one button to press) and the machine then closes the disc so that it can be played on any other CD player just as any ordinary music disc would. You can then rip those files from the CD into your computer as you might with tracks from a normal music cd. Once the .wav files are on your computer, you can upload them to a site like mediafire so anyone else can download them.

Here's a decent machine. this will likely be better than what I have.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TASCAM-CD-RW90...item3cb796f069

The only limitation is that the format is 16/44 but I think its good enough to give an idea of what a deck is doing. I don't think it sounds quite as good as hearing the deck at first hand, but tbh there are bigger variations in LP sound quality from one LP to another than what might be lost if recording from a good LP in this way. Certainly LP's I've recorded to CD for the car retain enough of what makes the LP sound good which suggests that the 16/44 is not far off what's needed & perhaps the poor mastering of many CD's is the format's achilles heel rather than too low a sampling rate or word size.

[chris@panteg]

No, but it doesn't mean that it's not a good material from which to make a turntable platter... I suspect that 'museum-grade' quality acrylic was chosen simply to ensure a nicer finish. It might also be better to work with.

Would you like me to obtain more info? It's not a problem

TBH, the only thing I'm interested in is how it sounds!

Marco.

I think it could be very good , Arthur wouldn't be doing it otherwise would he ? i suspect its something he's been looking at for some time .

One other thing , it shouldn't really need any mat i would have thought , but i read somewhere that Arthur recommends the Achromat even on old PT's .

[Marco]

Hi Guy,

Thanks for that - most interesting. I'll defo try one of those and compare the results I get with using the EMU. However, let's see what sort of quality is obtained first when Chris and I use the in-line attenuators.

I have to say that what I've heard so far, whilst not perfect, is rather encouraging!

"museum grade!" I can imagine the reaction of plastics stockholders (or indeed engineering companies) if I called specifying "museum grade" acrylic for a particular job

Lol - I'm only reporting what I've been told. At least you heard it here first!

Marco.

[pure sound]

YNWaN. My Voyd is currently having a rest. (Only room for one functional TT here) When I set it up again I'll do some needledrops of records played on the acrylic & then the Lexan platter. It'll be instructive to see whether the difference is audible.