New Townshend Rock 7 owner

bdp24,

Interesting you mentioned having to "upgrade" your arm mounting plate. Although mine is more substantial than your stock one is, I have envisioned making one out of carbon fiber.

I met with Kevin Carter yesterday. Luckily, I live around 1 hour away. He doesn't have the boards right now for the Maxxed-Out" and doesn't know when they'll be available. We did however, listen to his "Trio" in the most  basic version through a Nottingham (forgot which one) TT, with the (N) 12 arm, Benz LP cart. According to him, his latest Trio has 4x less output impedence than the Maxxed-Out!

We listened with his TT power supply that has a level adjustment. I was very impressed with this piece.

I want a phono w/ volume. His wasn't set up this way. He offered to see if he can modify his own to let me borrow and try out. He doesn't have stock pieces waiting for orders. He is an independent, highly educated, music lover that has been fortunate enough that he can live his dream. He could not have been more gracious, more easy going person and a joy to be with.

We got 5" of snow last night. Great listening weather if the power stays on.

Damn, 5" in one night! After living in the California desert for the past eight years (with temperatures in the teens---one hundred and teens!), the 23 degrees today (with ice everywhere) of Portland Oregon/Vancouver Washington is a major readjustment for me. No more shorts, t-shirts, and swimming pools, it's now thick jeans, flannel shirts, heavy coats, and staying inside! They're shutting everything down tomorrow, telling everyone to stay home. More time for music and movies!

Various clamps:

My table came with the acrylic clamp and the expandable metal washer, if it can be called that?.

After speaking with Max earlier, I wanted to try his latest metal clamp. ( I like to try things for my own knowledge, then, if I choose to post, it is from my own experience.)  It has a damping material on it's underside and comes with (4) different thickness of metal washers.

For my testing, I used the original, expandable metal "washer".

I thought initially, that I liked listening without the original clamp. I heard a dampening of dynamics, less air/bloom with the acrylic clamp.

The metal clamp is 180 degrees. It offers a vivid listening experience but I still find it somewhat uninvolving as opposed to no clamp at all.

I still find that no clamp gives me a more involving, a more natural, emotional connection to the music. The lower bass is more fleshed out.

Any of you tried them? Love to hear your experiences.

Having said all of this, for me, it gives me some flexibility for recordings that may trend too bright or too dark.

I found the same with my VPI table. I own the (2) VPI SS center weights, (one I applied a 1/16" carbon fiber circle to it’s bottom side with a center hole cutout of 1&1/4", this is a benefit in another way. Some lps are thicker in the center. This makes the stock VPI weight not sit "flat" on a record. A serious flaw in it’s design IMO.) a BDR two piece clamp and a Stillpoint LPI. I found here that I most often prefer the Stillpoints but have noticed benefits with the other two clamps on various recordings.

Interested in others’ findings.

An example of a lp I listened to this morning:

Elliot Smith "S/T"  This is a digital recording. Without any clamp it sounded too forward and/or bright in the upper frequencies. I listened again with the metal clamp. All of the dynamic extension is still there but still a little too forward/bright again. The acrylic clamp sounded , in this particular case, more analog in nature although it dampened the ultimate dynamic extension. The acrylic in this case is my favorite.

The perfect solution would be to have had this recording in all analog if it would had been possible. So we cope and deal with what we're given.