A Copernican View of the Turntable System

Dear Thuchan, Not sure I understand just what it is that I might disagree about. I don't feel very contrary about anything except maybe outboard tonearms.

As far as mounting two (or more) arms, it's just a matter of allocating enough space surrounding the actual chassis on the surface of the (slate, in this case) plinth. I designed mine with a lot of flat surface area and no traditional "hole" over which to place a tonearm mounting board, so I am restricted to using surface mount tonearms. (Tonearms that do not have a vertical shaft that needs to reside below the level of an armboard, e.g., Triplanar, Reed, Grandezza[?], Dynavector DV505, RS Labs RS-A1.) So the tonearms are mated firmly to the entire mass of the slate with bolts that go all the way thru the thickness of the slate, which I think is a very good thing for sound quality. If I were to start over, and I may in fact do so, I would re-design my slate plinths along the lines of Steve Dobbins' plinths and also the Saskia. If you look at those, the discrete tonearm board is held firmly to the main plinth by a single large bolt, so it is well anchored but can rotate in space outside the confines of the plinth surface entirely and therefore has a wide range of adjustment to accommodate various sizes and lengths of tonearm. The Dobbins plinth for his new direct-drive turntable, The Beat, is very well thought out for two tonearms. Beautiful and beautiful sounding, in fact. (Heard it at RMAF.)

Talea, too, I think would work on my plinths.

Dear Lewm - maybe got it wrong!
thanks for your explanations. Agree that slate is a wonderful material. I heard the Beat at RMAF too and I do share your assessment - this was one of the highlights, really good sounding

Pity we did not know enough to find each other at RMAF. Next year all of us need to do a better job of making plans in advance of the event. I went to the Mexican restaurant for the vinylphile meeting on Friday but could not identify anyone to talk to except Win Tinnon, with whom I had made prior arrangements.

Funny that altho I have strongly rejected the idea of an outboard tonearm pod, I have involuntarily been dreaming up a way to make a really heavy one using a cylinder made of bronze that can be purchased direct from a metals company here in the US, in a wide range of diameters and almost any reasonable height. The mind cannot rest.

Dear Lewn - you wrote

"I have involuntarily been dreaming up a way to make a really heavy one using a cylinder made of bronze that can be purchased direct from a metals company here in the US, in a wide range of diameters and almost any reasonable height. The mind cannot rest".

www.metalsupermarkets.com

And reasonable cost too. They make it real easy for you by cutting on the spot.

I have a picture of one of their shelves in my gallery link that I posted earlier. Here it is again.

http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/view_userimages.php?user_id=5181&image_id=39023

Lewn - I bet you will continue to be tormented by these visions until you try it out - :).

As an update I have been contacted privately by two individuals who are trying this out. Plinthless and separate armpod. I have encouraged them to post but they choose not to - at least not here. One of them uses a panzer plinth with his SP10 and also has a Raven.

Looking forward to hearing from them during the winter and I hope they decide to post their impressions here if they read this.

Cheers Chris