Benefits of a record ring

A couple of things...

First: In response to Dan_ed, my turntable can handle the extra weight. It is where the weight is placed that I find troublesome. I find it troublesome with certain other turntables, too. Keeping the mass near the center of the platter is a definite plus with idlers and direct drives because the very last thing you want to do is create a runaway flywheel effect where none existed before. A ring clamp might do exactly that.

It brings to mind the point that a ring clamp isn't a clamp at all. Rather, it is a ring weight. What the world needs is a true ring clamp, which could be very lightweight, and that doesn't exist, at least to my knowledge it doesn't.

Second: Cousinbillyl mentioned the used of slate. I use it, and I like it. However, there is no one reading this post who hasn't heard a very good turntable that doesn't use it. It is a material, and with modern designs that do not employ the use of a top plate, its significance is diminished because there are a lot of great turntables out there that are made from other materials. At some point in high-end audio, we begin to talk about flavors, not absolutes, and slate may well be another flavor.

I happen to believe that plinth materials are best discussed when in relation to vintage turntables that have faulty resonance creating top plates. Slate struts its stuff there. In other designs? Maybe, but maybe not.

HI Mosin,

my thoughts were following your line of thinking as well. The lighter platters of most rim and DD tables may have issues with the additional mass added. When the platter weighs 30+ pounds the additional mass on the circumference may not make much difference as far as the drive system is concerned.

I have to say that I'm also in agreement you regarding the plinth-mania that seems to be viewed by many as a fix all solution for any 'table.

With the Saskia, I assume that you designed the table with slate in mind. Or did it just happen to be the best available alternative? Hope I get to hear one someday.

When I had my SME 20/IV-VI, I had a custom record ring made by Bob Benn.
It made the presentation smoother, the dynamics became less those of the turntable and more those of the music, and the speed stability seemed better.
I liked it and preferred using it to not, made the SME 20 sound quality go about 30 percent of the way toward the SME 30. I tried to get the ring modified for the 30, but Benn went out of business so I sold it. The SME 30 is good enough without it and there seems some hazard to lofting he ring up and down anyway around the delicate arm and cartridge, that would be my main objection to using the ring on a routine basis.

A glance, a nod, a tilt of the head, some mumbling, etc. Sometimes it is just a shoulder shrug. :-)

LOL. You should watch us trying to choose a restaurant. The eyebrow is mightier than the sword. ;-)

Mosin, isn't a "record clamp, but not a weight" the idea behind vacuum hold-down?

Platter coupling for improved resonance management was much more significant on our table than any improvement in speed stability. The ring we used was pretty heavy (~1200g) but I'm not sure we heard ANY affect on speed stability. As Dan said, a 35+ lb platter isn't going to notice the extra moving mass very much.

Frankly, any high end (ie, costly) TT that benefits from additional circumferential mass by maintaining steadier speeds is fundamentally flawed, at least IMO. Maintaining constant speed despite the challenge of variable loads is job one for any TT, and it's the job of the designer to match the rotating mass of the platter to the chosen drive system. Mosin has evidently thought about that and my (too short) experience of the Saskia suggests that he succeeded. If a heavy ring impairs its speed stability that would actually be evidence that he got the mass/drive system balance right. :-)

IMO the only downside would be logistics - I fail to see how a flatter record surface could be anything but positive. In my case I have a suspended table and an SME arm so it wouldn't really work...