Outer ring - who uses and what are your findings


Hi. 

I have been thinking about getting an outer ring to help flatten/couple/stabilize my vinyl as it rotates. 

Curious what your experiences have been. 

Thanks!

p
perkri
I use a TTWeights TTMega 1.2kg ring weight in addition to a 1.4kg "Nugget" centre weight, for EVERY SINGLE record that I play. The innovative way that the TTWeights ring is centred, makes it a no-brainer to use it. The difference with mildly warped records is nothing short of miraculous, but the audible improvement with normal flat records is profound! I have several thousand vinyl records.

I cannot attest to the performance of this combination on other turntables, but it categorically improves the musical reproduction on mine from excellent to exceptional.

For the record, pun intended, my vinyl system is as follows:
I did that ritual for 5 years on my Classic 3 and it became so routine I didn't really think of it as a choir after a while. However, when I changed over to the Spiral Groove SG2 with Centroid Arm I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to flip a record over.  All kidding aside, I definitely thought on the VPI Classic 3 the peripheral weight was worth the effort. However, I am happy now I have a table that doesn't require it. I also have the option on the Spiral Groove to use a washer and dish the record to the platter. I found that most of my records don't require it. So I ditched the washer also. Put on a record, thread in the clamp and done. 
Threading the clamp with a washer is non trivial, since to do it correctly, you should spin the record to see if you have enough dish for the corners to meet the platter. Too little and they don't meet, to much and it bows away from the platter. 
I did that ritual for 5 years on my Classic 3 and it became so routine I didn’t really think of it as a chore after a while.
I use a TTWeights TTMega 1.2kg ring weight in addition to a 1.4kg "Nugget" centre weight, for EVERY SINGLE record that I play. The innovative way that the TTWeights ring is centred, makes it a no-brainer to use it.
I should explain that the TTWeights ring is placed on the record by means of a positioning cover which is so fast to use that it takes about a second to remove the ring and about 2 to 4 seconds to put it on! It takes me as long to put on the centre weight as the ring weight. Putting a record away in its sleeve and jacket and taking out the next one takes far longer than putting on the weights. It takes me about 10 seconds to take off the weights, flip the record, and put the weights back on. Given that I brush away static from the record and treat my stylus, every side change, the placing of the ring weight is a trivial proportion of changing record sides.

Here’s a two minute YouTube video by TTWeights, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOwvm_cuytc, showing an extreme example of a warp being totally flattened, but notice that the time it took to place the ring weight on the record was about the same as placing the centre weight on it - less than 2 seconds all up. I believe that the same is true of the techne-audio ring mentioned above. My understanding is that positioning the VPI and Clearaudio turntable-specific rings is more involved.

I hadn't seen that, using the spindle for positioning the outer ring. Very innovative.
I have a Clearaudio Ovation with Universal arm and VTALifter2, fitted with a Dynavector DRT XV-1s cartridge.

I use a HRM ADH 850 gr record clamp and the new style 1500 gr. Clearaudio Outer Limit ring with the black Delrin locator ring (it no longer needs that spider centering thingy). I use the clamp and ring on every play. I get absolutely no HF ringing or harshness ever, and the bass is fast, tight and detailed. It’s just a part of my routine for playing records (that also includes cleaning the stylus and brushing the record). Not to mention obsessing about slight warps is a thing of the past.