. . . simply me fiddling, a suprising result . . . ?

CJSF

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I've been having a play . . . who said 'so whats new'? OK, I thought I might have a go with an 'Acrimat' from Inspire hifi, all this chat of acrylic and all got the jucies rising. All very well but acrylic mats are very smooth, so some form of holding the record firmly on the mat might be a good idea? These 3mm mats seem to be offered with 'weighted Spindle Pucks' as an extra? Acrylic mates are designed to replace the standard felt mats found on all sorts of TT platers and claim to improve the performace?

I dug around in my box of 'useful one day bits' . . . came up with a couple record clamps, the 80's equivalent of modern spindle pucks. Two clamps, one by NAD the other from Michell engineering. So I thought, I have three options;

1 obviously, no fixing, simply drop the record over the spindle, as nature intended

2 weight one of the clamps, and use it as a 'Puck', in this case, the NAD lent itself to this process. I fashioned a 6oz weight as can be seen making a total weight of approx., 8oz. The whole fits over the spindle, but the clamp is not tightened.

3 Use the Michell clamp as it was originaly deigned, light pressure and turning the knurled clamp knob, an old fashioned idea revived?

As I say, its simply me fiddling as one so often does, not really expecting much. The result was a surprise . . . The standard un fixed record was played as a sample, usual tracks were chosen, so I knew what to expect in its standard form. Hazel was sitting beside me on the sofa, resting, she is still convalescing from her operation.

I swapped backwards and forwards, a few times . . . had a break, made a cup of tea. Hazel had said nothing. Back to the listening, 1, 2 and then 3 . . . without any prompting from me, I did not even realise she was listening, Hazel piped up, "the old fashioned clamp sounds best".

She was spot on, unclamped was as we had heard many times before in various tests, excellent. The weighted puck was disappointing, closing the soundstage down to within the speakers, depth was good, but overall, the sound lacked openness but detail was good. The light weight, old style Michell clamp was the surprise, a slight improvement over the 'control unweighted standard'. More air around the performance, extra width and depth in the sound stage, base and voicing were maintained. Not world shatering, but a subtle improvement in the image and openess, perhaps we did know what we were doing in the 'good old days'?

The interesting thing will be when I get the Acrimat and try the above again, will the old style clamp still be superior?? Should the modern 'spindle puck' be re reconsidered?

CJSF
 

CJSF

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Sorry, forgot to attach picture to the above

Weighted puck on the left, Michell clamp right:

700spindlepucks.jpg


500pucks.jpg


CJSF
 

DandyCobalt

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Intersing cjsf - I've got the "twist to secure" Michell-for-Rega clamp, plus the Inspire weighted puck.

Problem for me with the Michell one is that you have to stop and start the motor to unclamp the thing each time you turn over the disc.

Waiting on an install date for my Benz Glider so will have a puck play in the meantime. Also still waiting for the through-arm rewire kit to arrive.
 
A

Anonymous

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Read the title.......Reminds me of a bath I had when I was about 12!
 

CJSF

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Yes Dandy thats the problem, stopping the TT every time . . . its why I made the 'puck', so as not to have to stop the TT . . . :?

But . . . as ever, there are no shot-cuts, I've spent the best part of the afternoon and 3 hours since 4.30, digging out some of my dynamic music . . . phew!!!

Three solid hours, great music, but with a 'kick' . . . The Michell clamp was a pleasant enough . . . can I use the word ‘revelation’??? It certainly gave the music a leg up.

However I then popped on Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop, I love it, turn the wick up, electric Philistine music of the first order!!! . . . but hang on, there is so much control, I can hear the guitars individual strings and the distortion, does not sound distorted? . . . serious control!!! Some much more happening, notes have time to develop and decay. Volume up, more than usual, the base line is not only audible but tactile, the sofa vibrates.

Michael Hedges . . . same, simply more control allowing a better insight into the music. Change of tack, still dynamic but how about some Syd Lawrence Big Band Magic . . . wonderful

So onto my beloved church organ music, the pun is not intentional but it is truly 'organic', obvious control and those low frequency pipes are awesome, same as Jeff Beck, piped became singularly audible. It was like listening to little cracks opening through which came more music, an extra layer was audible. Very subtle it has to be said, but audible it all was. The low frequency was a surprise, at lower volumes the vibrations were less tangible, so I did not hear them when I did the first puck tests.

The clamp seemed to be giving extra control, nailing everything solid, it was almost as though the system was saying 'give me more', its the first time I have wished I had more power and bigger speakers!!! . . . On the other hand, considering we have a modest 50w and speakers cabinets no bigger than a couple of shoe boxes each, I suppose shaking the room was not bad going . . .

Inveterate tweaker that I am, I'm pretty pleased with a simple, no cost tweak.

By the way Chebby, we could have done with that TT scaffolding on Hazel’s back the other week . . . that would have sorted here out :rofl:

I do enjoy it when a plan comes together, makes me smile :cheer:

CJSF
 

CJSF

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chebby said:
image_title_63llf.jpg


"Hazel! Get another Horlicks going. I think i've cracked it this time."

Wonder how many thousands that lot cost? . . . compared to my Freeby puck and clamp . . . free by now, as all the items I have used are either from 30 years ago or cobbled from something else.

One percent here, a couple of percent there, it all ads up . . . just takes a little time and patience :type:

. . . "mad, I've always been mad" . . . CJSF
 

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