Best cable for Graham 2.2

Nsgarch,

I don't use a mat and I doubt many Teres owners do, especially those with hardwood platters. Cocobolo, jatoba and lead as implemented by CB are superb at resonance control. A mat would probably be counterproductive.

Dish-warped LPs are definitely a challenge to clamp when playing concave side up. The edges like to rise when pressure is applied. I've had some success by holding the edges down with two hands while tightening the clamp with my third hand. :-) Sometimes, with just the right amount of pressure, I can convince the LP to couple tightly to the platter even when the warp doesn't "want" it to.

When I had a periphery ring it helped a lot, but even then some badly warped records would not sit perfectly flat. I imagine only vacuum could achieve that.

The reflex clamp normally works very well. Many records literally must be pulled loose from the platter after the clamp is removed. Careful clamping has created a vacuum-like seal.

Cheers,
Doug

How does one use alternative clamps AND vacuum hold-down? I have a Basis Debut vacuum table; it uses a small spindle clamp with a built in rubber o-ring to act as a vacuum seal around the spindle hole of the record.

I spoke to a former distributor of the Basis table and he said that his experiments with perimeter clamps on the Basis table show that there is benefit to their use even on a vacuum table. I suppose it changes the resonant characteristics as you folks have pointed out.

Dear Nsgarch: You can solve the " lift off " issue with a Reflex clamp like Sota or Basis ( If I remember the Goldmund clamp is a Reflex design, too. Right? ).

To prevent the " lift-off " you have to use a rubber 0-ring that you insert in the spindle TT and below the record. Maybe you have to have at least two o-rings with different thickness for records of 180-200 grs and other for the normal 120 grs.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Larryi,

Is your spindle threaded? If so you could try threaded clamps like those from VPI or Teres. I don't know about the VPI but a Teres clamp has room for O-rings on TOP of the record if that's needed for the vacuum to seal.

Interesting report that even a vacuum platter can benefit from a periphery clamp. I guess that confirms what we heard, resonance control is actually a bigger benefit than warp flattening.

Doug

I don't think you can make the generalization that all vacuum tables need an additional clamp,to dampen resonances.I doubt that the Walker does!

My friend,who owns my exact analog rig(Cosmos/Transfig./2.2)tried my little "cork mod",which I mailed to him.Although he confirmed a really nice improvement in sound(and promised me a nice bottle of wine),it is the Sota Reflex clamp,that seems to be the culprit(this has has stayed unchanged for about 15 years,while the tables have morphed into greater designs).This seems to be reflecting feedback,which the cart. is picking up.The clamp is actually quite resonant,and rings when struck with a finger nail( at least mine does).By placing some kind of dampening material underneath,this effect was greatly reduced,and made a really nice improvement to the sound.However it did make sense,to me,that one could re-voice the vta/downforce/fluid(combo),to a bit of a higher degree,once this slight "clamp induced signature" was reduced.I cannot say completely eliminated,as I only spent one listening session with the improved results.

Best to all,and hope all is well!

Also,Larry,hope the new super tweets are working out.I read the web-site,and according to Townsend these models apparently expose a real weekness in the Tannoy "super tweeter" designs.