Albert Porters after market panzerholz plinths

Jonathan, you posted this in another tread:

11-01-09: Weisselk
I make slate plinths, under the OMA name, so obviously I am not unbiased. And I HAVE listened to an SP10 with no plinth. Which is why it strikes me as rather absurd to go that route. Same with people who like a skeletal or box plinth with decks like the Garrards.

Weisselk (Answers | This Thread)

I realize this was in response to "nude" or no plinth but it got me looking at designs on the OMA website. I see Technics SP10 are left in their original casework and you obviously have had good results with that.

I also leave the Technics in it's case but support it with an aircraft aluminum sandwich within the interior. On the bottom an iron block is secured with stainless screws that join the Panzerholz and aluminum sandwich.

This iron block is drilled and tapped, a brass rod screw tensions up against the Technics bearing after the table is installed in the plinth to further reduce any possibility of chassis flex.

Mikelavigne answered your question about Steve's plinths and I have answered about mine. You're not being ignored.

Hi Albert,

Thanks for the response- I did read Mike's response, but I always prefer getting an answer from the maker of a product directly.

As for what OMA does, we have always made slate plinths for customers with Technics SP tables, and continue to do so. I even have a client who does mastering for vinyl reissues such as Mosaic who uses a SP15 in one of our plinths, as he needed it to run backwards to play back metal "fathers" of 78's (apparently you can't easily do that with an SP10).

But our Tourmaline deck does indeed remove the SP10 motor and platter unit from the chassis, and mounts it directly into a 200 pound slate plinth. Which is why I was curious if either you or Steve had taken that approach.

I look forward to hearing both your SP10 system and Steve's at some point. Will either of you have a deck at RMAF? We will be in Room 573 with the above mentioned setup.

Yours,

Jonathan Weiss
OMA

Jonathan, Steve should be at RMAF but I'm going to be taking photo's as usual.

I heard the OMA rim drive at CES and was mightily impressed, probably the best source at the show. If your SP10 plinth is indeed 200 pounds of slate it cannot help but sound wonderful. I'm all about the belief that mass is required to tame the powerful MK3 and Slate is another way to get there.

In some ways we're doing the same thing. Slate naturally has constrained layers, formed by nature. I'm getting mine by using layers formed under pressure (German Panzerholz).

Hi Albert,

I wish we could take credit for the rim drive you heard at CES, but we were not there, and have not made a rim drive deck to date. I wonder what you heard? All of our turntables and plinths are made of slate, but perhaps it was a Denham TTweights deck? I think he makes a rim drive?

You and I do concur that mass is everything in dealing with this type of deck. It's true I have not gone through the journey of self discovery that Raul has, training myself ruthlessly to hear in seconds what takes others years to discern, but the idea of a low mass plinth for the SP10 turntable has to be a colossal piece of silliness.

In any event, look forward to seeing you at RMAF again. And one of my favorite wooden Uwe bodies for the Denon 103 is the panzerholz. It's an interesting material.

Jonathan Weiss
OMA

Jonathan, I thought you were partners with Win Tinnon. I stood in the hallway with Win and spoke at length about how good the table sounded.

Maybe it was another show other than CES? I've covered almost every audio show and they sometime run together in my mind.