Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?


I have just acquired a 32 year old JVC/Victor TT-101 DD turntable after having its lesser brother, the TT-81 for the last year.
TT-101
This is one of the great DD designs made at a time when the giant Japanese electronics companies like Technics, Denon, JVC/Victor and Pioneer could pour millions of dollars into 'flagship' models to 'enhance' their lower range models which often sold in the millions.
Because of their complexity however.......if they malfunction.....parts are 'unobtanium'....and they often cannot be repaired.
halcro
Dear Thuchan, yes you have right and I absolutely agree but ... the point of my reluctance about using anything soft, realised by my worries of a possible removal of the LP by elasticity when the stylus drag makes it's demands, but also because the very thin felt mat needs to glued upon the copper in order to stick there and not on the LP's downside everytime that we have to change the record. Another thought would be that by using a soft surface in contact between LP and platter, we break the continuity of flow for the resonanses which created by the needle upon the LP and we just damp instead of drain them. This method poses the danger of returning the resonances to the needle but as vibrations this time. Any way I've tried your suggestion and I like the sound. It is only that (like the isolated armboard) it does not conform with my general outlook regarding the resonance treatment. I still have some reservations about the possibility of making a second wrong decision in order to fix a problem that arise by a first wrong decision ie: to balance a mistake that we can't comprehend all of it's parameters, by throwing to the game a second mistake.
Thuchan is correct.
With the Cu180 platter mat and the Victor thin suede (pigskin) mat on top, it improves the sound over the bare copper mat.
It is even better than thin felt and it doesn't need to be stuck down.
A nice heavy record clamp will help it form a delicious 'coupled' and 'decoupled' bond to the main turntable platter :^)
Dear Halcro, whether Thuchan is correct it is debetable as I've gave you my reservations in my previous post and your idea for a nice heavy record clamp can trigger more than just a field for a second and even more heavy objection. It is one thing to just filling your needs and a completely different one if you decide to do it with the right way.
"Of course it sounds great, the best we've heard till now, e.t.c. But still, it is just a way of giving a fight with what we have, and the results are quick and the success is great... And we are in danger to follow the wrong direction because of this."
and :
"...due to our limited knowlege about interactive materials & mechanics & thats the reason we accept the isolation as the only way (but is not the right one)".

An excerpt of my reply in your thread about the Copernican view on TT and I repeat now. This is my own personal assessment to these matters when one is point the isolation as a weapon.
No one can assail Thuchan's stated preference based on his listening, but I tend to agree with Geoch; using the felt mat will certainly change the sound from that of the bare copper mat. However, if one does not like the bare copper mat, I believe the better cure would be to get rid of it in favor of a mat made of some other material. I am not sure that the impedance mismatch between a vinyl LP and copper is any worse than the impedance mismatch between felt and a vinyl LP. But that's the key, as Geoch says, IMO. Now Halcro mentions a pigskin mat on top of copper. That may be a completely different story vs felt. (Where the heck did you get a pigskin mat, Halcro?) I like the idea that the LP will probably not slip on pigskin, nor should the pigskin move against the surface of the platter. Also, the impedance of pigskin is likely quite different from that of felt, when matched with a metal like copper. I use the SAEC SS300 mat on my SP10. I have no idea what metal(s) its made of; I read once that it is an "alloy" of something. I tend to like it but I am open-minded about other materials that in principle may have merit, like graphite (or pigskin?).

I once owned a SOTA with a felt mat. Every turntable I have owned since then has sounded better to me in terms of ability to separate notes and musical lines and in bass definition particularly, so I am biased against felt, even though I think the main problem with the SOTA was a stretch-y belt.
Hi Lew,
The pigskin mat I purchased from Tommy at Topclass
SUEDE
It is paper-thin and IMHO.....a perfect partner for the Micro Cu180 platter mat.

Dear Geoch,
Are you saying that because we don't fully understand the principles governing that which we hear through our systems, we should not believe our ears?