I think the notion of NOT having the LP in
intimate contact with a well-damped and heavy platter is misguided, in fact
terribly misguided. If the LP is forced into contact with a lively, resonant
platter (as many are), that's not good either, of course, but it's the
platter's problems that need to be fixed. The answer is not to lift the LP free
from the platter. Perhaps starting with the Transcriptors turntable of decades
past, to the odd Meitner Platterless table, several have tried a platter-less
approach, and none have succeeded. Hold a LP freely in your hand in the usual
way, and tap the surface. You will hear that plasticy sound. It's a
characteristic sound, not neutral at all, not like tapping a concrete wall.
Spectrum analysis shows a number of resonant modes especially at lower
frequencies, depending on the LP's weight. Those are the sounds that will be
underpinning your music if the LP is not forced onto a neutral platter surface.
Look at how records are made: Scully and Neumann lathes used massive turntables
with vacuum hold down for the lacquer. Early Neumann lathes had 65-pound
platters, later ones went as high as 130 pounds, if I recall correctly. No
mats, just hard vacuum pull down. Similar to...Micro Seiki! |
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