A 60 year old turntable design is still going strong!

Fantastic turntable design. I have two.  One is my "B" system daily driver. Now, it has been souped up just a bit:  quiet DC motor; acrylic sub-chassis with cast-in bearing; thrust ball bearing; adjustable VTA mount for tonearm, and a good-but-cheap tonearm circa 1990, the Jemco.  And a Grado Black.
I am completing a thick, heavy, constrained damping base for it. 

In general superior to my Linn, Ittok, Troika, although it has its own merits. The AR showed the way for a littany of similar tables from Thorens, Linn, Logic and others.  Its fun to rung the inner platter lie a bell, ring the out platter like a bell, and put them together for a dull thud.
I would like a better way to securely attach the vinyl to the platter, but that's a common problem.
With this table and the Grado, dynamics are superb, considering that by today's hgih end table standards its quite modest.

My second AR is still in parts.

MC - its a chassis old school three point sprung suspension with rudimentary damping.  The sub-chassis hangs from the springs, which are centered on three shafts /screws.
Pretty normal design from 1950 --> 2000, and all pretty much based on Ivor's original

(above -- "classic", i sometimes hate auto"correct")

I would not worry about holding records down. My Origin Live Gravity One record "weight" disabused me of all that in no time flat. It was the general I-beam design that caught my eye, not the details of how it was implemented way back then. The Sovereign turntable I have now is light years more sophisticated in materials and construction, but it does share this one feature of design. Which I find fascinating. 

Edgar Villchur developed acoustic suspension which allowed smaller speakers to produce bass and had a significant affect on stereo as the smaller speakers made stereo practical. And until the 70s it ruled audio speaker sales. Acoustic Research owned 1/3 of he market.

Villchur then wanted a better reasonably priced turntable. He hired a designer and after a year with no results took over himself and with no background in turntable design, just working with logic, developed a turntable that became the model for most of the turntables for the next decades.

He treated his customers like family. If you had problems that needed factory warranty work, they supplied boxes and paid for for shipping both ways.

He sold Acoustic Research in the late 60s and went into hearing aid research and acquired several patents that he gave away.

If there was ever an audio hero it was Edgar Villchur.