The platter does not make noise. The Cosmos uses a magnetic thrust bearing. If you had a noisy turntable tight clamping might transfer noise better. With quiet turntables vacuum is a net positive. The wandering pitch of a record that is not flat is annoying.
Is There a New Record Pressing Machine Out There?
I bought Wilco's newest Album "Cousin" yesterday and noticed something I have never seen before, the record has no lip. The label area remains raised but otherwise the record is dead flat. It is a very heavy record, probably 200 gm. I believe records had the lip to prevent the tonearm from floating off the edge with changers which were way more popular than manuals back in the 40s, 50s and early 60's. With manuals the flat record is easier to cue by hand.
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@hometownhero Thanx! It is a Canadian company. The machine is quite basic. The old machines trimmed and spit out the records automatically onto a tall spindle. This one relies on a human at each transfer step. Good for humans, bad for speed. |
@mijostyn Machines with manual transfer capability have a few strengths. Mainly when the operators have the ability to manipulate the molten puck special effects in the records can be produced, such is split, tri, quad color, splatter effects etc. Also the production waste to quality yields tend to be far better on a manual press as quality assurance is built in vs an automatic where defects would be caught at a later stage in production. Generally the downside is speed and worker fatigue. On the other hand, the super quality Japanese pressings in the 80s were all done on manual press, so there's that. |
Quality Record pressings in Salina, KS has had the ability to press discs without a lip all along. My Analog Productions subscription series of Prestige Mono and Stereo reissues are pressed with no lip, while my subscription series of the RCA Living Stereo are pressed with a lip. The folks at QRP once told me they also have contract pressing jobs that request/require no lip on the discs. |
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