Thoughts On Turntable Clamps And Weights

Depends upon the TT drive system, whether there is potential to damage the bearing or drag on the motor. Some use what I view as ridiculously heavy weights, 500g and much more. I would stay at or below 250g, as an arbitrary rule of thumb. Clamps can be very light, because their effect depends upon a physical push provided by a threaded mount or a clamp mount, and certainly a well made clamp is putting no strain on the motor or bearing; it’s pushing the LP against the platter mat and platter. If you believe that your platter mat is an important component for dissipating energy generated at the stylus/vinyl interface (and I do), then the use of a moderate weight or clamp is justified. Very expensive, sometimes very heavy, weights made of exotic materials that make magical claims for improving sound quality, beyond any improvement one may perceive from a "sensible" weight or clamp are a manifestation of audiophilia nervosa, in my opinion. For example, Shun Mook.

Thank you for the interesting and thoughtful responses.  From what I gather, locking the vinyl to the platter, with either a weight or clamp, is helpful to a point.  But more force does not necessarily equal improved performance. 

I've been using a DIY 8 ounce weight (Thorens TD125 MkII) for 20 years without any noticeable decline in sound quality (the deck/bearing seem to be fine).

I tried a few heavier (some much heavier) commercial weights, but did not care for the sound (decline in harmonics/reverb), but mine is a "sprung" deck.

Give a light weight/weight a try.

For my taste I prefer the contact between the weight/record to be hard/solid (no leather, felt or other soft interfaces).

I suspect that I might be satisfied with an even lighter weight, but never got around to experimenting.

My DIY weight is a small Mapleshade brass cone mounted to a Thorens 45 rpm adapter (oddly the diameter of the cone and the adapter are the same).

DeKay

I’ve found the sonic distinctions between various weights & clamps to be subtle at best. That said, over time I’ve settled on Stillpoints LPI as favorite.

The real value of a center weight comes when used in conjunction with a ring clamp to effect whole-record clamping. There’s only so much clamping you can do from JUST the label area.

Also of importance are ergonomics and thoughtful design features like: if an end groove fails, does this weight help or hurt my stlyus’ chances of survival? The thick pucks (like Stillpoints) are helpful because they’ll block the headshell / body well before a cantilever gets near a clipping edge.

I also remember an early version of Clearaudio's Twister clamp where the metal twist knob would pop off surprisingly easily; might as well have been a cartridge & record wrecking ball at that point. Wtf! Fortunately later versions fixed this.