Benefits of a record ring

Cousinbillyl, sorry to hear about your recent insanity. Welcome to the ward.

Of course we find this makes it VERY fast to dial in for replays. I started maintaining those notes in 2004. Since then we've changed cartridges, tonearms, TT's, TT bearings and drive systems, and of course each change affected VTA/SRA. Therefore, our postit notes include not just a list of arm height settings, but also the cartridge or TT or whatever associated with each.

By keeping a standalone list of those system changes and what effect each has on arm height, I'm able to calculate a current height number for LP's I haven't played for many years/rig changes - in just seconds.

Visitors think it looks geeky, as do I, but the experienced ones understand what I'm doing. Everyone hears the difference when I dial it in precisely, though only Paul and I notice when it's off without A/Bing, because we know the sound of our system of course.

Steve Marsh, an online reviewer, visited recently to compare his Hovland to our preamp. He wanted to use an LP we'd last played 3 years ago and watched me check the post-it, my list, do some arithmetic and set the arm height. This took about 15 seconds while the platter was spinning up.

After a few bars I jumped up and tweaked the height to get it perfect.
"Moved it down a bit?" he asked.
"Yes" I said, "good ears."
"It does sound tighter, good adjustment. By the way, how far did you have to go from the setting you calculated?"
"1/200th of a turn (0.5 on the numeric dial)."
"#%$&&?!"
:-)

BTW, it also helps to record the LP's weight, as a proxy for thickness. Similar weight LP's on the same label generally have a very similar arm height. Big time saver when playing an LP for the first time.

Still, your kids are right, about all of us.

Hey Doug

Here is a problem my wife and I encountered last night. We started listening shortly after supper, but, my post it notes where all wrong!!!, we had to lower the arm on each album a tiny bit, around 1.0 - 1.5 on the dial. As the night wore on, the notes became more and more correct. We have now come to the conclusion that either A; we can only listen later in the evening, or B; live with an edgier sound during the day. Oh well, such is life.

Tell me more about your post-it-list. What are the parameters of this list?.

Cousin

Maybe nothing to do with arm height per se? Improved power quality at night, fewer appliances running, etc. Most systems sound best late at night...

*** Here's the whole craziness ***

The master list has two columns:
Column 1. the system change that required an arm height change (e.g., name of new cartridge, name of new TT, etc.)

Column 2. the amount of the change as measured by the TriPlanar's dial; example: +150 means the system change in column 1 required adjusting arm height by one and a half turns of the dial.

Some typical entries:
ZYX UNI #3: -220
Etched belt: +3

This means that my 3rd UNIverse required an arm height adjustment of 2.20 turns from the previous system change. Later, when I changed drive belt types, arm height needed to go .03 turns in the opposite direction.

***

The post-it on each LP jacket includes basic info at the top (record weight, cleaning regimen, demagged?). Below that are two columns of arm height history:

Column 1: same as Column 1 on the master list (ie, what system change is this setting for)

Column 2: arm height as an absolute number, expressed in whole turns of the dial. Since the numbers on the TP's dial go UP as the arm goes DOWN, the higher the number the lower the arm. A typical number might be (say) 2544. This means the arm must be positioned 25.44 turns from its highest position. (No, I don't go up to the highest position every time! I have a visual marker for where 2500 is, from there I just rotate the pointer clockwise to .44. Voila! 2544.)

***

Now imagine I pull out an LP and the post-it tells me I last played it using the setting just before I got UNIverse #3. The arm height for that play was (let's say) 2660.

Checking the master list, I see that there've been two adjustments since then. Adding them together (-220 and +3) yields an adjustment of -217. Add that to the previous absolute height (2660 - 217) yields a new absolute height of 2443. That's where I start the arm for this play.

It's unusual to be off by more than 5 or so, even if the previous play was several years and system changes ago. I fine tune while listening and update the post-it while re-sleaving the record.

Of course this is MUCH faster do than to write. :-)

Doug & Paul

And I thought I was OCD. Awed and humbled

My take is that the effect of a ring clamp depends on the turntable where it is used. In the case of the turntable I build, a ring clamp has the potential to affect the moment of inertia to the detriment of the sound. It depends on the weight of the clamp, and it also depends on the drive system. If the turntable is a drive method other than a belt type, I would suggest trying the clamp first because too much mass at the outer edge of the platter has the potential of negatively affecting transients and micro dynamic detail. All that said, it may be possible to develop a featherweight ring clamp...fingers crossed.