Verdier with or without the steel ball


Hi

I recently bought a Verdier TT magnet version wich is called
"La Platine".

In a first time I used it without the small steel ball provided by Verdier and let the platter be repulsed only by the magnetic force.
The result was very bad: it sounded lean without bass at all .

In a second time I used the little ball following the instruction from Verdier and then it really revealed the potentiel of this wonderfull TT.

A friend of mine guives me the following explanation :

To have a chance to reproduce bass you must have a "physical contact "
He pretends that the technical choice wich consists in isolating the platter through magnets , air or liquid automatically leads to the same flaw: a lean sound without bass .

Any opinion would be very welcome

André
tenmus
BIGBUCKS

Sorry for this bad explanation...
In fact that is excatly what I have done but in this position I thought that the benefit of the repulsion produced by the magnets didn't exist anymore as the ball touched the platter...compared with the "no ball" option.

André
Interesting topic.
As a long time Platine owner ( about some 10 years ) i'm happy to report my findings with all.
firstly there are a lot of weird thoughts and quotes about the Platine turntable. through the years ive heard the most silly remarks, mostly about the magetic repulsion and mostly from non Platine owners.
again i find it strange to find reports about a lack of bass output when the ball is not used at the top of the spindle. i cannot confirm this.
the trick with the ball.
what you need to adjust to get the best performance is the height of the spindle to get the ball just touching the platter. this way the ball touches but does not support any weight.
sounds logic ? it is and it is way to go.
the platter is non magnetic itself so the ball does not need function as an electrical grounding.
The benefits of having the platter suspended by 'air' is indeed what you want. however you do not want an up and down motion of the platter, here comes the ball into play.
it takes some time to adjust the spindle to accomplish this and so i made an upgrade kit to have a fully adjustable spindle with the platter actually mounted.
you can see my kit here :http://www.callas-audio.nl/verdierbotten.jpg
no i do not sell these kits, they took way too much time to create.
the micrometer you see is been put on the base and measures the platter movement.
this way i can actually see what i do. and with 1/100 of an millimeter read out this is a very accurate way..

the difference with our without the ball actually touching the platter is there, but in 10 years of use with many many arms and elements i have never experienced any dramatic things with our without the ball. i experience the best results though with this particular way. your mileage may vary.

one thing for sure, if you buy a Platine you never need to look further.
regards
I have owned the Platine for only 5 months and have tried both with and without the ball. Its a pain to set things up especially tone arm but the BEST overall result was obtained with the no ball. Topping up the oil is important.
I also made a stand for the motor so that it is not on the same shelf/stand as the Platine turntable table itself.
Cool stuff you made, Tuboo.

I've got a friend with a complete machine shop. Maybe I can talk him into making a similar set of hardware for my Platine.

On the other hand, taking the platter off to make adjustments isn't that difficult.

Thanks for the idea!