Great point on the clamp and the fact that not all aftermarket clamps may work properlyon every turntable. Please keep educating us with your years of knowledge and experiences. When I got my Project plinth, there was a promotion at the time, giving you an accessory kit which included their clamp designed to sync with my particular model. It is nice to see a manufacturer, in your video, incorporate the clamp into the design promoting "Pure Fidelity". When you don't have to tweak a component to maximize the fidelity, you have a betterr chance
Exactly and with the expected life expectancy of the main bearing when we talk about clamps or weights. In 40 years, I've only had one vintage Thorens Turntable in my hands that had a great main bearing. The rest of them ranged from fair to ready for the trash heap. Not all of this was from weights, mind you, but from improper transporation and the failure to lift the inner platter up off the thrust plate when moving the table.
A huge pet peeve of mine is exactly what you bring up here: purchasing and mounting cartridges with a complete disregard to mechanical and electronic matching. Even with a flexible phono preamp and MM cartridge, the effective mass and length of the tonearm as well as cartridge mass, height, and compliance need to be taken into consideration. Unfortunately, most sales people are ill-equipped to handle these questions and are more than happy to sell you whatever they have in stock, preferably if its expensive.
We just had one today where the customer decided to mail order a $300 cartridge we sell and try to mount it himself. Well, as the cartridge tag on the Music Hall is larger than the pins on the Ortofon, he had to reshape the tags and in the process mashed it with pliers. So, we get the table, and now have to replace the tag and solder the very thin lead onto a new tag. Two other tags were not the best either after his work. Meanwhile, we check the tonearm and the bearings are loose as hell. So, with our inspection fee and labor, the condition of the table, we have pulled up and will tell him to simply buy a new Rega and return that cartridge. We'll forske the inspection fee and labor thus far so he ends up in a much better position. With the way the arm is, a $50 cartridge is about it, not $300. We see this all the time. This is the sort of thing that the sellers don't care what's happening, the point of selling that to a customer, what's going on with the table, and on and on. Meanwhile, those of us who do care get screwed. Thank's Crutchfield. Lord knows what his alignment would have been and it's effect on his records.
Well, actually, some of the comments I receive are quite good and I learn from them. Some of the best information is actually in the comments and responses.
I never purchased a clamp before until I bought a rega 3, it cost about the price of a good album, then it dawned on me only a week later I am putting a chunk of metal on a highly engineered turntable so after about 3 times using it, it is now a door stop so not a complete waste.
The other aspect I did not mention is the fact that the additional weight of some of these things challenges the motor torque in the start-up mode. Lord knows what that does to motor life. Then, what is the potential for motor noise as they wear. As for clamps, I know there are some simple lightweight ones or the clearaudio cleverclamp (a piece of plastic for $37.00 in the States which I think is a bit absurd) that if you want to play with a clamp, well, ok. It is a hobby and some folks enjoy playing with stuff.
Unfortunately many aren’t handy and even if you are tonearms are a delicate item to be messing with, now in my late 60’s I don’t have the hands to work on my gear I use to. Building a relationship with your local dealer can only save you money in the end. It’s not as simple as it looks. Once a professional explains the various key factors that have to be addressed it’s sounds extremely logical. Your dealer didn’t learn this stuff over night, it takes years of experience. They have seen it all, buy and learn from them, Your vinyl collection will Thank You 😎
Yep, dealing with a case of that right now. Mail ordered a $300 Ortofon cartridge and he screwed up the cartridge tags. The real sad thing is that the tonearm on the Music Hall MMF-5 is shot with loose bearings. So, it's a waste of money to buy and expensive cartridge. But, hey, mail order is click and ship regardless of the realities. Makes doing something unfortunate real easy. Now, instead of selling off the Music Hall and getting a nice Rega, we have service work and a whole lot of hoops to get him where he should have been after he mail ordered a cartridge we sell.
The turntable in my system over the many decades has always been the component I loved the most, from tonearm swaps to cartridge upgrades it always delivered sonic improvements. It’s always a treat when you pull out an album you’ve owned for 40 years, played 50+ times and after a cartridge upgrade etc. you hear detail never heard before. Audio never gets old.
Tom, the designer really knows turntables, their strengths and weaknesses in different approaches. We have had several real long conversations. When we we received it for evaluation, I put it to the side for months. When I pulled it out, I was like "whatever." Then, we put it together and listened and it was a "what the hell?" in amazement. Brilliantly simple.
Great point on the clamp and the fact that not all aftermarket clamps may work properlyon every turntable. Please keep educating us with your years of knowledge and experiences.
When I got my Project plinth, there was a promotion at the time, giving you an accessory kit which included their clamp designed to sync with my particular model.
It is nice to see a manufacturer, in your video, incorporate the clamp into the design promoting "Pure Fidelity". When you don't have to tweak a component to maximize the fidelity, you have a betterr chance
It sent before I finished. You get the sonic intention of the designer.
Exactly and with the expected life expectancy of the main bearing when we talk about clamps or weights. In 40 years, I've only had one vintage Thorens Turntable in my hands that had a great main bearing. The rest of them ranged from fair to ready for the trash heap. Not all of this was from weights, mind you, but from improper transporation and the failure to lift the inner platter up off the thrust plate when moving the table.
A huge pet peeve of mine is exactly what you bring up here: purchasing and mounting cartridges with a complete disregard to mechanical and electronic matching. Even with a flexible phono preamp and MM cartridge, the effective mass and length of the tonearm as well as cartridge mass, height, and compliance need to be taken into consideration. Unfortunately, most sales people are ill-equipped to handle these questions and are more than happy to sell you whatever they have in stock, preferably if its expensive.
We just had one today where the customer decided to mail order a $300 cartridge we sell and try to mount it himself. Well, as the cartridge tag on the Music Hall is larger than the pins on the Ortofon, he had to reshape the tags and in the process mashed it with pliers. So, we get the table, and now have to replace the tag and solder the very thin lead onto a new tag. Two other tags were not the best either after his work. Meanwhile, we check the tonearm and the bearings are loose as hell. So, with our inspection fee and labor, the condition of the table, we have pulled up and will tell him to simply buy a new Rega and return that cartridge. We'll forske the inspection fee and labor thus far so he ends up in a much better position. With the way the arm is, a $50 cartridge is about it, not $300. We see this all the time. This is the sort of thing that the sellers don't care what's happening, the point of selling that to a customer, what's going on with the table, and on and on. Meanwhile, those of us who do care get screwed. Thank's Crutchfield.
Lord knows what his alignment would have been and it's effect on his records.
@@audibleeleganceinc You did the person a huge favor. Thanks for making these videos and being so active in the comments section.
Well, actually, some of the comments I receive are quite good and I learn from them. Some of the best information is actually in the comments and responses.
I never purchased a clamp before until I bought a rega 3, it cost about the price of a good album, then it dawned on me only a week later I am putting a chunk of metal on a highly engineered turntable so after about 3 times using it, it is now a door stop so not a complete waste.
The other aspect I did not mention is the fact that the additional weight of some of these things challenges the motor torque in the start-up mode. Lord knows what that does to motor life. Then, what is the potential for motor noise as they wear.
As for clamps, I know there are some simple lightweight ones or the clearaudio cleverclamp (a piece of plastic for $37.00 in the States which I think is a bit absurd) that if you want to play with a clamp, well, ok. It is a hobby and some folks enjoy playing with stuff.
Unfortunately many aren’t handy and even if you are tonearms are a delicate item to be messing with, now in my late 60’s I don’t have the hands to work on my gear I use to. Building a relationship with your local dealer can only save you money in the end. It’s not as simple as it looks. Once a professional explains the various key factors that have to be addressed it’s sounds extremely logical.
Your dealer didn’t learn this stuff over night, it takes years of experience.
They have seen it all, buy and learn from them, Your vinyl collection will Thank You 😎
Yep, dealing with a case of that right now. Mail ordered a $300 Ortofon cartridge and he screwed up the cartridge tags. The real sad thing is that the tonearm on the Music Hall MMF-5 is shot with loose bearings. So, it's a waste of money to buy and expensive cartridge. But, hey, mail order is click and ship regardless of the realities. Makes doing something unfortunate real easy. Now, instead of selling off the Music Hall and getting a nice Rega, we have service work and a whole lot of hoops to get him where he should have been after he mail ordered a cartridge we sell.
The turntable in my system over the many decades has always been the component I loved the most, from tonearm swaps to cartridge upgrades it always delivered sonic improvements.
It’s always a treat when you pull out an album you’ve owned for 40 years, played 50+ times
and after a cartridge upgrade etc. you hear detail never heard before. Audio never gets old.
Nor does the need to find a sanctuary in music from the world. @@1999zrx1100
It is a beautiful beast. I have not really had a chance to sit down and listen to it but when the weather gets cold, I want to make the time.
Tom, the designer really knows turntables, their strengths and weaknesses in different approaches. We have had several real long conversations. When we we received it for evaluation, I put it to the side for months. When I pulled it out, I was like "whatever." Then, we put it together and listened and it was a "what the hell?" in amazement. Brilliantly simple.
A little like Tom Fletcher designs in some ways