Lube for turntable - What do you prefer?

I have an oracle alexandria with a worn upper bearing. Not sure what oracle reccomends, but they told me to run something heavier. I am running the silicone type stuff that is meant for the well tempered tables with great success, the sound quality was very dramatically improved. It is VERY thick and a pain to clean up. It got rid of almost all of the sibilance I was experiencing.

If you have an oracle, the upper bushing/bearing is likely worn.

Just thought I would chime in with some experience I had last week.

Hi Dewald,

Doug's and Raul's answers are the most comprehensive.

Proper lubrication (e.g. protecting the bearing) is the starting point.

From there, you need to try various lubes to determine what sounds the best. By changing viscosities, you are tuning (or de-tuning) a resonant system which is comprised of all of the rotating parts in your turntable:

- Motor and its torque
- Controller circuit - how quickly it responds to the changing environment.
- Drive interface and its compliance (e.g. belt / material, idler wheel / material, direct-drive)
- Platter mass
- Bearing tolerance

Changing any one of these will affect what you hear (especially as far as timing is concerned), and not necessarily for the better.

Let your ears tell you what's right, and realize that if you make a system change elsewhere, that you may well need to return to this evaluation.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Thom - thank you for the feedback.

I think I have found the lube for my machine - the sound is open & relaxed with lots of "air" in between. Rumble has gone down to virtually zero and it was a change for the better.

You see - I use radical VESCONITE to make the main-bearing sleeves from. This is a super low-friction plasic with excellent wear-resistance. It doesn't have that nasty ring/ping that copper have... I like it very much.

DV

I have found that the lubricant that I use in my trumpet to be good and musical to boot.

FWIW, changing to Mr. van den Hul's zirconium oxide-doped spindle oil made all the difference in my Goldmund TT.

Supposedly the super hard zirconium oxide particles act like nano ball bearings which actually keep the metal surfaces apart from one an other, thus eliminating bearing noise. The oil itself is used more as a "vehicle" to keep the particles in suspension.

Because the zirconium oxide is so hard, I'd check with A.J. vdHul before using it in bearings with plastic components.
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