New Mag-Lev Turntable

When the base of the arm and the surface of the platter are not rigidly coupled, the result is that any motion in which both are not a party will be interpreted by the pickup as a coloration. One example could be a loss of bass.

In a turntable ideally there will be no slop in the bearing of the platter or the bearings of the arm so that this rigid coupling can occur. In that way if the platter has motion other than rotation, the arm is moving in the same plane and so cannot pick up whatever that motion (noise) is about. Quite simply, any turntable that breaks this rule for whatever reason will be incapable of state of the art performance.

I agree with what Ralph says above. Mag-Lev under the entire turntable may have some merit. It would just act like a simple spring though. A Minus K or a piezo electric table base would probably work better.

You would never see a vinyl cutting machine with a design like the turntable the OP posted about.

I wonder if an isolation device under a cutting machine would be of benefit?   

I wonder if an isolation device under a cutting machine would be of benefit?  

Yes. And the industry made isolation platforms for lathes going way back to the old days (1940s and 1950s). In addition, the lathe we use is mounted on a special table that has adjustable pointed feet. We audiophiles were several decades late getting to the party!

Atmasphere wrote,

"When the base of the arm and the surface of the platter are not rigidly coupled, the result is that any motion in which both are not a party will be interpreted by the pickup as a coloration. One example could be a loss of bass.

In a turntable ideally there will be no slop in the bearing of the platter or the bearings of the arm so that this rigid coupling can occur. In that way if the platter has motion other than rotation, the arm is moving in the same plane and so cannot pick up whatever that motion (noise) is about. Quite simply, any turntable that breaks this rule for whatever reason will be incapable of state of the art performance."

Actually, Maplenoll turntables employed both air bearing platters AND air bearing tonearms. One assumes the $100K Walker turntable does as well since Lloyd bought out Maplenoll years ago. Thus the tonearm base and the surface of the platter cannot be rigidly connected. Yet Maplenoll TTs are some of the best sounding turntables of all time, and one would imagine Lloyd’s TT is as well, including bass performance. The warhorse Verdier TT employs a mag lev suspension for the heavy platter, obviously decoupling the platter from the tonearm base.

even in the case when the platter and tonearm base are rigidly coupled the whole TT is subject to bending forces produced by Seismic vibration, not to mention the tonearm and platter are excited by Sesimic vibration in the region of their resonant frequencies. So it’s no as if the situation is inert or competely rigid, anyway.

geoff kait
machina dynamica

@Atmasphere and Geoffkait - I find your use of the word Rigid misleading. Why don’t you use "Mechanically Connected" or something like that instead.

Rigid
- unable to bend or be forced out of shape; not flexible.
- not able to be changed or adapted.

Bruce Thigen did much work, analysis in this field.

From ET2 manual.
The large surface area of the air bearing uses some of the tightest tolerances in tonearm manufacturing today, and is much more rigid at audio frequencies than metal bearings.

The detailed data is available for viewing if anyone is interested.

I own Mag Lev, Air and Metal bearings.

@Atmasphere - fwiw I enjoy reading your posts on amplifiers / preamps, but do find your posts on analog playback don’t follow my experiences sometimes. Like here. Could this be because you sell Empire turntables and have a business relationship with Triplanar ? Well thats cool;
but all you have to do in your own room is start the 15 IPS tape and then 10 seconds later start the record. Toggle between the two adjusting for the fact one is high level and one is low level. The turntable set up is very tweakable so one can learn its limits quickly this way and adjust.  Have you compared this way in your own personal room ?
Because of the eminently tweakable nature of turntables, I never set up a room with vinyl first. Digital and Tape 15 IPS has excellent, consistent bass. Once that is setup I bring in the vinyl artillery. Its that easy.

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Back to the OP Mofi’s thread topic.

716 backers pledged $551,298. Looks like they met their goal.

Looking to learn. I would be interested if any of these backers/buyers can post their experiences here.

Cheers