Orosonic/Monster Cable Reflex Record Clamp

Dear @slaw : The overall function of TT mats and clamps are to damp resonances that at the end is a kind of distortions.

Exist a lot of " nice distortions " that are generated by the room/system and for analog mainly inside the analog rig and there with what happens at the ridding of the stylus tip where is here what every thing starts about, through the " noises/distortions " generated for the cartridge that is trying to follow the grooves modulations and in that movements adds a lot of non-existen information in those recorded grooves but additional to that exist a feedback coming from the LP surface that adds more " trash "and then the degradation proccess continue trhtough the headshell and tonearm own resonances and feedback goes on and on.

Unfortunatelly does not exist perfect mats or perfect clamps that can make that damp in perfect way so through the time we are accustomed to listen our systems with several " nice distortions " that puts some kind of " life " additional " life " to the recorded signal and when we change the mat for a better damping one or a better damping clamp some of those " nice distortions " disappears and gone with some of that " life " but in reality what we have after the changes is not more recorded information but a cleaned-up information that through some time we take in count that what we listen is clearer music information ( notes/harmonics ) .

For years I used the AT666 disc stabilizer ( after market vacuum hold down mechanism. ) and I remember in a thread that a gentleman posted that he does not like it that device because the music " life " just disappears when in reality is not in that way.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

@rauliruegas 

Personally I feel the same way. Vacuum clamping is the choice I prefer as you get the most even coupling of record to platter. But even that has degrees of success. When I bought an early SOTA Star Sapphire as a proof of concept to see if I wanted a SOTA table, that one had adjustable vacuum suction levels. I found if I got over 50% the music was dead, as the low level detail was lost. If I kept vacuum in the 35% range, the music had low level detail, but also even tonal texture and body. 

SOTA has gone to an automatic vacuum level in their current products where the initial vacuum pressure is applied and then reduced to maintain a desired level of pressure. From what I hear they have gotten the system dialed in properly. So on my main table this is what works the best for me, and I appreciate it. 

@rauliruegas ,

You failed to mention the greatest need for a mat... the bearing' noise through be the platter.

Once this is dealt with, a be proper mat is The best solution.

? For the OP : are you using the Bardo washer / clamp at all ? I find that effective in my system. I also have a SOTA reflex clamp and will give that a listen

I have always found the issue with record clamps to be is that they cannot apply pressure across the record evenly. They clamp the inside of the record just fine, but do very little for coupling the edges.

Right. I tried a bunch of clamps and they all had that same problem. One that worked the best was (I think) Basis and it used an o-ring around the spindle and another around the perimeter of the clamp. So after some trial and error I came up with this:
https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367  Look close, its hard to tell but the washer around the spindle is carbon fiber. There's a bit of Blue-Tack between it and the bearing. And now a more recent mod not in the photo, there's fo.Q tape with a thin film of TC on top of the washer, and a ring of fo.Q tape around the perimeter of the clamp.  

The washer is just thick enough to hold the record up slightly above the platter. The carbon fiber clamp is dished out underneath. When clamped down it presses the record flat onto the platter from the outside edges in. Its enough to hold most records perfectly flat. 

I know the records are held perfectly flat all the way across because when the clamp is released after play it takes a second, sometimes a couple seconds, and then the record pops up. So it was effectively vacuum clamped even after the clamp was removed.