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Here are some my ideas for an “Unlimited Turntable”. Feel free to share some of your ideas…

An “Unlimited Turntable” should allow multiple arms. It should be a good quality arm with a good stereo cartridge…. Also, it should be a good quality arm with a good mono cartridge or at least the “older” conical profile. Also, it is nice to have a “not perfectly cartridge” permanently installed that would prolog a life of the “reference” (and presumably expensive) cartridges. There are many record that not necessary should be played by the “reference needle”….

An “Unlimited Turntable” should accommodate any arms, any mass and any length. If you decided to put 1.5kg Dynavector arm or 16” Micro arm then you should not have a problem to do so. Also, an “Unlimited Turntable” should allow you to use a liner tracing if you wish.

Un “Unlimited Turntable” should have a very long vertical bearing. The longer the better.

An “Unlimited Turntable” should have a suspension that would allow a mechanical single point contact with a mechanical ground. None of the air, liquid, magnetic or any other type suspensions sound “unlimitedly good”. The only suspension that I have seen and that had a “perfect pitch” at LF were the mechanical single point bearing. Those, the mechanical single point TTs are not very friendly to live with they do requite a frequent (I would say bi-annually flipping over and changing the bearing oil (with a prospective needs of reinstallation of the arms). Also, they have some limitations of the total platter mass, as there are only a certain amount of pounds to as sq. mm that, even best material, could handle. No mater what, you will still need to change from time to time the bearing plate… So, what might be an “Unlimited Turntable” solution if you need to implement an “Unlimited Turntable” reliably, maintenance-friendly (or free) and with a very heavy platter, for instance 200-250 pounds? I would propose to add mass in the platter and to unload it at the bearing level. Let me to explain… Pretend we have a 200 pounds that none of an existing single point bearings will be able to handle for along time. So, we introduce an air or a magnetic bearing but the air suspension should be design to hold just 170 pounds. The rest 30 pound is handled by a “normal” single point bearing. This design would also to have a large platter moment (and many other benefit that flow out of a huge platter mass) but still would allow to have a single mechanical ground to the mechanical Earth and it will sound the very “ultimately”. Unfortunately there is no TT that I know that has implemented in this way. One of the reasons is because it is quite complex and there are many “issues” to do it properly. (It is quite difficult to make it smooch “automated” translation from a default stand-by position to a default spinning position). Anyhow no one said that the “Unlimited Turntable” should be inexpensive.

An “Unlimited Turntable” should be belt driven (in context of a large platter mass) and the belt should “hang” (in context of am extra long vertical bearing). In both of those “contexts” the “beating” while the belt slips will not take place.

Un Unlimited Turntable’s motor, electrical, and electronic assembly should not radiate any magnetic fields. You should be able to turn 10 times around your TT the raw weirs from a MC cartridge and the weirs should not pick up any noise differences between the TT being “on” and “off”.  Also, the power supply should not be just regulated (it just suppress the voltage but not pulls the voltage) but regenerated. Anyhow it should worn with a wild voltages range and fluctuations.

Un Unlimited Turntable should have a certain mass/material balance between its platter and the platter’s base. I do not know what the balance should be. I feel that a mass/balance between patter and patter’s base acts as a second order high-path filter. There are an ultimate number of LC combinations in such a filter and all of them have own transient and other characteristics that do affect Sound highly but not necessary the language of Sound. Talking about the mass/balance between patter and patter’s base there is also an ultimate amount of the possible “correct” ratios and all of then deliver the “same” result but… there is something else in there… I am not even talking about the regular resonances (that should be taken care) but about the Super Resonances, sort of “Schuman Cavity” of a turntable’s universe.  It is possible that the Super Resonances  (I would estimate that is lives somewhere below the resonant frequency of arm) has relativity to the mass of the stand and the resonances frequency of the room, however it does affect (modulate) pretty everything the TT does.  I really do not know how it may be implemented intentionally, I just know if it there or not. Very few people know how to use the electrical filter in the speakers properly and beneficially. However, there are even less, practically no people who know how to design the mechanical property of a TT practically, intentionally with a predictable result.

The Chow-san the Micro’s owner told me that the art of designing the TT is the art of recognizing of the frustration in Metal. How many people are able to do it today? The structural engineers who know the things build bridges and airplanes. The Morons who built today the TT are the former “C”-students who were fired as they do not qualified to work as the engineers or they just a bunch of armatures who are completely clueless what they do. So, the opportunity that the Unlimited Turntable would be ever built is quite minor….

To be continue when I have more time.

Rgs,
The Cat

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