Verdier with or without the steel ball

Andre, I'm not sure I would agree with your friend's contention. I have never owned a TT w/ magnetically suspended platter, but have had two w/ air-suspended platters, and they had no problem w/ bass.

It could be that a magnetic suspension alone allows too much "bounce" in the platter which indeed would reduce bass. Air suspension platters are "rock solid" as long as the platter is sufficiently heavy.

I know nothing of liquid suspension platters.

The fact that a ball bearing enhanced platter stability on one particular PV doesn't prove that it would do the same for every other turntable.

Much depends on implementation. If the lateral bearing tolerances are tight enough to maintain platter stability and prevent "rocking", a non-contact vertical support might indeed be capable of excellent bass and dynamics, as Nsgarch has found.

Your friend should be cautious of deducing broad general principles from a single example. "Cogito, ergo erro!"

Dear André: My experience about was with Micro Seiki TT: I owned an air bearing model and now I own a non-air bearing
one.

Are there any differences?, yes there are and specific on bass the non-airbearing has a tight bass that the air bearing one, this one has a very good bass but it is a litle on the " soft " side.

For what I read ( and hear for one time ) the Verdier is very good on that subject.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

My Platine is set up without the ball bearing. Without it, the platter can be bounced up and down on the supporting magnetic field (the field acts as a spring). The platter does not rock in any way, it rotates absolutely flat. When playing, there is no up and down movement of the platter.

To me, the bass is great, but I haven't tried it with the ball in place. I may someday, but basically I'm too lazy to bother. Verdier told me in an e-mail that they recommend trying it both ways to see which you prefer. I was surprised. I thought they would have had a preference since it was designed with the ball in the first place.

One potential advantage of the ball is that it provides a 'better' mechanical ground of the platter to the spindle. But the platter/spindle clearance is pretty close, so there may be sufficient grounding at that interface?

The other BIG advantage I see is regarding set up. If you DON'T use the ball, you need to set your arm's VTA with EVERYTHING in place (platter/mat/record/clamp), since the height of the platter is weight dependent, whereas with the ball in place it isn't.

Maybe that is/was your problem?

Bigbucks

Whatever the VTA is , it sounds much leaner without the ball.
It would be interesting that you try it..the difference between the two options IS VERY AUDIBLE ( at least in my system).
Better to be helped to maintain the ball while putting the platter back on the spindle)
For the spindle you also have to find the exact limit height where the magnets don't support the platter anymore and where the effort is done by the ball itself.

And of course don't forget the warm up before doing it...

André