Hi Mike re: your carts my two cents.
Your carts from the specs appear to both be line contact designs.
The Zephr at 10 μm/mN compliance the Delos at 12 x 10-6cm/dyne at 100Hz. Similar compliances.
I would be running both of them on the Carbon Fiber or Mag armtubes not the Aluminum armtube - at least not without modding it. I see you have added wrap in your virtual system picture. I feel if you move the Delos to the CF it will return more information to you. Be interesting to find out.
But I don’t like to recommend activities that involved switching out carts, due to the risks involved in beheading them. 8^0
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Some perspective on the thread application.
Re: your modded TNT
If I applied the thread tension that I use on my string drive turntable, to my former modded thread drive TNT, the TNT platter would barely move. It is applied loose - so loose that you can flick the thread as the record plays and not interrupt it. The string drive turntable’s pulley, and platter / bearing inertia design keep it going.
The VPI’s platter/bearing and motor pulleys being designed for belt, take some time to get it right as you say, with thread. But once dialed in I found a profound performance increase. Like the musicians were playing based on receiving some good news earlier in the day. The speed controller needed to be set much higher, but the resulting shorter and tighter bass notes improve pace and tempo and put the TNT on a par with my other tables at the time. I once tried a thread slingshot approach with the motor a few feet away. That was interesting - like kicking in a turbo. But the thread could not take the strain.
My findings
Adding belts to a string drive design is easy to do, but it degrades performance.
Adding string/thread to a belt drive design, is not as easy to do, but it improves performance.
I’ve set up two complete armwand / wire looms. One for the Zephyr and one for the Delos using the carbon fiber and aluminum wands respectively
Your carts from the specs appear to both be line contact designs.
The Zephr at 10 μm/mN compliance the Delos at 12 x 10-6cm/dyne at 100Hz. Similar compliances.
I would be running both of them on the Carbon Fiber or Mag armtubes not the Aluminum armtube - at least not without modding it. I see you have added wrap in your virtual system picture. I feel if you move the Delos to the CF it will return more information to you. Be interesting to find out.
But I don’t like to recommend activities that involved switching out carts, due to the risks involved in beheading them. 8^0
************************
Some perspective on the thread application.
Re: your modded TNT
Getting the tension right is a PITA, as I have to move the entire turntable to change it.
If I applied the thread tension that I use on my string drive turntable, to my former modded thread drive TNT, the TNT platter would barely move. It is applied loose - so loose that you can flick the thread as the record plays and not interrupt it. The string drive turntable’s pulley, and platter / bearing inertia design keep it going.
The VPI’s platter/bearing and motor pulleys being designed for belt, take some time to get it right as you say, with thread. But once dialed in I found a profound performance increase. Like the musicians were playing based on receiving some good news earlier in the day. The speed controller needed to be set much higher, but the resulting shorter and tighter bass notes improve pace and tempo and put the TNT on a par with my other tables at the time. I once tried a thread slingshot approach with the motor a few feet away. That was interesting - like kicking in a turbo. But the thread could not take the strain.
My findings
Adding belts to a string drive design is easy to do, but it degrades performance.
Adding string/thread to a belt drive design, is not as easy to do, but it improves performance.