Lube for turntable - What do you prefer?

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.
.

Hi Nsgarch,

Have you compared this lube against something of equivalent viscosity without the particles?

I'm trying to separate the relevant variables in the context of your turntable.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Thom, I've had this TT since new (it's a Studietto w/ the JVC quartz controlled motor) and only changed the oil twice before in the last 16 years (my bad!) although it hadn't dried out or anything. (I think I used some kind of super-refined machine oil but I can't remember for sure now -- could have been 10-40W ;--)

About two years ago, I decided to un-spring the TT and replace them with sorbothane PandaFeet in densities corresponding to the different spring strengths. This not only made the table a lot easier to use, but resulted in tighter bass and a really black resonant-noise-free background.

So when I read about the vdH spindle oil on their website, I thought it sounded pretty interesting in theory, plus a vdH dealer in Belgium said he got great results on his Pluto TT. To be honest, I was NOT unhappy with my TT's performance at that point, but being an audiophile, well you know the rest. . . .

Anyway, I put some in my TT and a friend's Studietto, and we both noticed the same two improvements -- they were subtle, but the kind of subtle that if you had to go back, you'd be unhappy ;--)

The JVC rotor/bearing has a hemispherical shaft bottom that rides on a (looks like) teflon or nylon pad, I'm not sure. And it only takes about 1.5 cc for a complete lube replacement, so I have quite a bit left if you'd like to try a little ;--)
.

240z4u,
It's funny that Oracle recommended a heavier weight oil for the old, worn bearing of your alexandria. They told me that the teflon coated bearing in the Delphis would probably benefit from lighter oil in an older bearing due to the fact that the teflon swells slightly with age, tightening up the clearance.

I don't know what type of bearing is used in the alexandria. Do you know? Is it teflon coated? From what they told you, it seems as though it is not teflon coated.

To see whether you have too heavy of an oil in your bearing, give it a little spin and observe how the platter comes to a stop. If it's quick and you can clearly see the point when it stops, either the clearance may be too tight or you might be using too heavy of an oil. In this case you can use a lighter oil. It should come to a stop very slowly. It should be difficult to see when it actually stops.

Dewald_visser, what did you machine the bearing clearance to when you built your table?