Thoughts On Turntable Clamps And Weights

@lewm , @terry9 

Wow, hold on now. Lew, there is supposed to be a firm rubber washer about 0.5 to 1mm thick and 1/2 to 3/4" in diameter over the spindle, under the record. The Sota REFEX clamp contacts the label only at its very edge. When you tighten the clamp down the edge of the label is forced down into the label rebate flexing the record into the platter/mat. This will remove small warps and flatten dished records. It is way better than just a record weight. SME, Avid, Oracle, Kuzma and Dohmann use this method. It is not as good as vacuum clamping but a bunch less complicated and it will work everytime. Vacuum clamping will fail if the record is badly dished or too warped. 

@stringreen , IMHO periphery clamps are a Pita and an accident waiting to happen. They are totally unnecessary if you get a reflex clamp like the SOTA. 

Mijostin…pita for you but not for me. Never dropped it simply flattens the record. The option is to use it or not. I have used it for years

Ok, so I neglected to mention the washer. Sue me. I don’t use it with flat LPs, and again I thought the discussion was about sonic effects of weights and clamps, not record warps. But inevitably it seems headed that way. There’s only about a dozen other threads on that subject. Carry on.

I too have a VPI Scoutmaster Signature with a Dynavector DRT XV1s. After about a year of use, I applied a small portion of black permagum to the cartridge shell and adjusted the counter balance accordingly. It gives the tone arm more mass and sounds great. All of my albums are flat and it’s a toss up whether I use a clamp or not. The lp sits on a cork platter cover, so there’s no slip. Tone arm weight is set to 2 grams. The platter is aluminum-not composite