2020 update : JC Verdier La Platine

@mr_gray 

I do have to acknowledge comments by @pindac above about his vinyl journey. But more importantly it is about your enthusiasm for the La Platine, in particular, and your joy on full display with vinyl playing in general. It is infectious! I now feel guilty when not playing records.

Just when I thought all stones have been turned, you come up with this double loop idea. It seems counterintuitive at first. The logic was to reduce the contact area as much as possible while still maintaining speed. But the truth was the tiny silk thread was struggling to maintain speed especially on 45s’. And the additional loop really increase very little. It now looks like the thickness of the original linen thread. But the soundstage is more defined with better width / depth presentation. I have planar magnetic speakers. At low volume, the soundstage flattens. That has not changed. But at regular listening levels ( 75-80 db ), the soundstage is holographic. Because of the back and forth on this thread recently, I further refines my setup. The soundstage was improved already. But this takes it further, a very nice uptick.

@lewm 

The threads we use are regular sewing threads that we tie together. It is impossible to tie two loops with identical diameters. The first attempt at the double loop resulted in a very similar situation as @mr_gray. The loop was too small and the motor almost touched the plinth. I have a better managed distance between the two now.

This is some thread, no pun intended. This spring I was going to purchase a Verdier La Platine, until I landed here, to complicated for me lets get something else. Summer came and being Canadian I behaved like a cow that exited the barn for the first time after a long winter and decided to wait until fall for my turntable purchase. Yesterday I had coffee a little to late and could not sleep, due to my google history I fell on a few La Platine threads where owners where ecstatic for their Verdier, I told myself, "why did I not purchased this table", until I fell on this thread, which reminded me why.  Ouch, steel ball or not, ceramic ball, touch the ball not touch the ball, different motors, different suspensions, infinite belts, someone even bought extra magnets. I cant even find a seller outside Europe that sells the recommended oil and it's min 5 liters. Something else, I admire your persistence, thumbs up. 

Mr. gray, Do you live on Hokkaido?  Our son lives in Tokyo, and we visit him every year, usually when it's relatively warm on Hokkaido.  So we have visited Sapporo and the. surrounding area on three separate occasions. Hokkaido is a beautiful place to live with the best sushi I have ever eaten. We still have much to see on Hokkaido, and I hope for future visits.

I stumbled upon this ad on the German audio-mart for a La Platine. This seller is a French audio reviewer and a neighbor of JC Verdier. He claims that his TT, bought directly from JC, has the original magnets from Holland. In his photo, the gap between the magnets is wider, hence more powerful. The ‘newer’ TT has magnets made in China. It does seem from his photos  that the gap between magnets in his TT is much wider than mine. I measure a gap of 1cm, in his photo it looks more like 1.5cm, if not a little more. When did Verdier change magnets? 

https://www.audio-markt.de/market/verdier-jc-la-platine-pab-custom-stand-and-feet-5669484414

@charob

I understand your point. The message sent by this entire thread could be as you intimated, that the La Platine is a complicated device. But to put it in perspective, all we are discussing are tweaks to a fundamentally unique and musical turntable. Truth be told, knowing what we all know now, I would be happy to treat it as a plug and play. Use the original motor with the rubber belt and go to town. 
 

Since the production of La Platine has been taken over by Project ( though there has not been news about delivery date at all ), a new production La Platine may be priced  $15,000 ?. I have seen used one priced as low as $5000. Admittedly, there are many other TTs in this range that may be comparable in performance. But to not choose to buy it because it is too tweaks / complicated should not be one of the reasons. I hope you can see that it is a fundamentally ‘sound’ design that people are willing to put in the time to enhance its performance. And if one had to say what are the improvements of all these cumulative tweaks, maybe 10% better. And again, knowing what l know now, I would be happy to leave it alone, and just play music. That’s why all the other projects, e.g. better isolation platform, better motor control…. has been put on hold. 

@charob i would feel terrible if all of this forum talk has put you off.  as @ledoux1238 says, it is very plug and play.  all the fiddling is just for people who want to fiddle.

i bought the 5L of Rocol and will send you some for free if you buy a table.  i have enough to last me several lifetimes i think.

i was listening to bob dylan's "when he returns" from slow train coming.  it is just him and a piano.  for pure piano i think the linen thread sounds best.  the double silk however is quieter.  it simply communicates less motor noise and lets the music play more purely.  however with the double silk i cannot hit 45 rpm sadly.  since i almost never listen to 45s this isn't much of an issue, and if it were i simply slip on the linen or rubber belt and i'd be right in 2 minutes.  i can understand if people think that's an unattractive level of faffing.

i am unsure though if matching or beating the la platine is so easy.  i am surprised by consistently hearing from people i am interacting with recalling hearing a la platine and being impressed.  i think that's because it really does sound quite non-mechanical.  for me right now the music arrives in the lounge room,  no connection to the speakers or turntable. summoned and projected into the space in front of me.

i recently went back to audionote iogold cart and s9 step up transformer on the kuzma safir tonearm.  this setup is much more costly than the previously used delos/silvercore sut i had been using.  so a reasonable Q is does it sound alot better?

the answer is yes/no.  the iogold/s9 simply gives you a feeling of total resolution, zero distortion and extreme nuance of tone/dynamic.  no shorthand, no notes, just a very complete exposition.  having said that, my enjoyment is not necessarily proportionally larger. 

i do plan to disassemble the platine, see if i can align magnets better, then setup the fr64s tonearm on it so i have two tonearms (which i have never tried before).  i could put a mono cart on and see how that goes.  might put the denon 103 on since that was a verdier favourite and it goes with the fr64s so well.  i think the delos might be too same same.  all totally unnecessary but it's a hobby right :-)