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Mag Lev Turntable. Your Thoughts?

One is for sale on Audiogon. Very cool BUT, I can think of a bunch of potential problems. My instinct says it is showmanship but not having actually played with one who knows? Anybody have any experience with the Mag Lev?
The first problem would be that magnetic fields are not solid. They are squishy. What happens when you play different weight records. What about a record clamp? The tonearm is fixed to the plinth. If the height of the platter changes the VTA changes. If the platter bounces at all it will cause rather rapid speed variations. What about those powerful magnetic fields right under cartridges. Looking at the video the platter certainly is not machined very well.
Is it really worth the trouble. Good tables make very little noise. 99% of it is coming from the record itself. My inclination is that the platter should be on a solid footing.
128x128mijostyn
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
Obviously sales are going really well......
Wonder just how far they will discount them?

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis9g6f0-mag-lev-audio-s-levitating-turntable-ml1-black-features-o...
cd318
2,636 posts
 
I can only wish them and their backers well for attempting something SO radical. Bearing noise - what bearing noise?

Hopefully the price drop indicates that an improved MK2 version is on the way soon. Still won't please everyone but that's audiophiles for you.

For others the Mag-Lev may give you an inkling of the feeling that people must have had upon hearing radio for the first time, or even the gramophone.

You see it but you still have a hard time believing it. These are (still) the days of miracle and wonder.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,570 posts
 
Forgetting about all this, the noise coming from the lath and the record itself is far in excess of that created by even a half decent modern bearing. It is a solution without a problem.
clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 

You're certainly correct mijostyn, not just an 'inclination', it's stone cold scientific fact.

The MagLev turntable is no more than a gimmick and a poor one at that. It ignores most of the simple engineering rules for turntables. The platter has no attachment to anything. The arm is fixed to the plinth. As might be expected, the platter is not held in a fixed horizontal plane and position above the plinth – it oscillates irregularly in three dimensions. The stylus therefore does not hold its position in the groove. It is free to move relative to the groove and does so in every dimension. VTA, SRA, azimuth, effective arm length are not maintained. The oscillating movement will cause wow.
Indeed the movements are considerable – see at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUlPN2A_r-g.
The platter rim rises and falls in a range of around 1cm as well as oscillating a little in the two dimensions of the horizontal plane. The distortion introduced by a 1cm oscillation will be vast. The turntable is utterly incapable of accurate reading of the groove and will perform much more poorly than any £100 player whose moving parts are all attached to the plinth.
We are told the manufacturer accepts the powerful magnetic forces generated by the turntable are too great to allow its use with MC cartridges although they allege these forces do not affect MM (really?).
This product should not be on the market or else sold as a trompe d'oeil that cannot accurately play a recording.

It is quite incredible the magazines that have reviewed it do not raise these issues but report 'the sound is good if slightly mushy at the top', or suchlike

cd318
2,636 posts
 
The Mag-Lev ML1 has certainly ruffled a few audiophile feathers, but the feeling is they are definitely curious but not convinced.

I wonder if it would be possible to float the arm in a similar fashion whilst increasing stability? Or is that just begging for trouble?

The current specs for the Mag-Lev ML1 are indeed pretty impressive - 

Wow and flutter: < 0.17%
Signal-to-noise ratio:-73dB

But they cannot match those phenomenal ones of the latest Technics decks.

Wow and flutter: 0.025%
Signal-to-noise ratio:-78dB

And that's just the base models.

The top of the range Technics turntables are almost only borderline measurable -maybe already well past the point where they need to be.

Impressive stuff indeed, but they still can't fly like the Mag-Lev!
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