The Mike New ETP Platter
I've had the chance to sample Mike New's competitor to the Funk Firm platter for the Technics SL-12xx series direct drive turntable, the 'ETP'. This platter is made of a very dense plastic called ETP (Engineering Thermo Plastic) or, commercially, Delrin. It's a precision material that lends itself well to machining and shaping. The ETP is a one-piece design with no separate mat required. This could help cost considerations when comparing with other platters that require a mat. There is a slight indent for the record label, otherwise the surface is flat bar the two threaded holes for inserting bolts to ease lifting the platter off the bearing. The top half of the platter has an exact 12" diameter, which really helps when lifting and placing records; the bottom half is sized to fit the recess in the chassis. The finish is very smart in black and there is sufficient depth even for those, like me, who have fitted the base plate modification to strengthen the bearing mount, lifting it a few mm in the process. Delrin is, by design, an inert material with great internal damping. When I strike it while in position on the bearing, it sounds as dead as a very dead thing.
Swapping over the magnet assembly to the new platter, things are a tight fit and I found it best to align the trailing edge of a tooth on the speed sensor cog exactly with the red dot before tightening down with the three hex bolts provided, using them to pull it into the recess. I also applied a little Vaseline to the rim of the magnet assembly to make future removal a little easier. Another dab went onto the taper of the Mike New bearing (per Mike's advice) before lifting the platter over the spindle and dropping it in place. Fit is excellent with absolutely no movement or rocking between taper and platter.
The ETP is heavier than the Funk at 2.3kg versus 1.4kg for the Funk / Achromat or 2kg for the stock platter. Rotational momentum is also about the same as stock, judging by the brake adjustment required to get the platter to stop, which was dead centre of the potentiometer travel in my Mk. II. This is a handy reckoner for any given platter, the original metal MN platter requiring almost the full adjustment travel to get the motor to stop it dead.
So to the sound: well, I'm officially impressed. The ETP sounds to my ears better overall and more exciting than the Funk platter with Achromat. The improvements are specifically in the upper midrange / lower treble area, where there is more detail, edge definition and overall clarity. In fact, that’s it in a nutshell. These attributes make the whole very much more enjoyable, with a sense of verve and musicality that’s infectious. It doesn’t make a bad recording sound good, but at least I hear more of what went in even if it’s horribly limited. Take a good recording, however, and I am definitely hearing more than I’ve heard before. Vocal harmonies are better separated, allowing the individual voices to be differentiated. Plucked acoustic and electric string have a degree of edge definition I've not heard before. Struck drums have more shape to them. This is not a brighter sound, it's more that there is tonal shading in that all-important upper midrange area where things were in retrospect a little grey. Dynamics are helped because of the better-defined shape of transient notes, not something my Technics lacks but it's always very welcome. Overall, it makes a very compelling sound indeed and I find myself pulling more and more vinyl from my shelves.
The ETP platter is a really superbly engineered product, Mike - thank you. I'm buying this one.
http://www.mikenewaudio.com/
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Originally Posted by MartinT
