rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (06/07/85)
[] If I may step aside from the CD/LP wars for a moment or so, I'd like to pass on a couple of low cost gimmicks I have lately discovered that appear to have a very high cost/effectiveness ratio. (That's the way you say it although it makes more sense as a high effectiveness/cost ratio) I recently purchased from some mail-order (catalog) place - don't remember the name, but it was one of those expensive places whose catalogs come unbidden in the mail if you get on the right/wrong lists - two gadgets that have amazed me by apparently improving my enjoyment of my phonograph. Each was about $10 or $12plus shipping. Ther first was a mat made of genuine carbon fibers that fits tightly over the turntables center post. Assuming the turntable is grounded, the purpose is to drain off static charges from the record. Now Years ago I saw an explanation of why this wouldn't work. Unfortunately for me, I believed the explanation. The truth is, it does work. Now I have tried a lot of things in the past, and some worked sometimes. e.g., burning candles ionize the air - if you use the right kind of candle. Beeswax works well, the usual petroleum derivative candles don't. The "zerostat" gun to zap ions onto the record works for me sometimes, but not usually and is too much of a pain to bother with most of the time. This pad really works for me. There seems no trace of static fields around the disc. dust blows off. I often don't even bother mopping off the dust. The brush on the shure cartridge is sufficient. Gone are all sorst of crackles and pops. Many of which I didn'r realize were static electricity caused. THere is still an occasional POP, or BANG, I don't know from what, but they repeat at te same point. This, of course works best on new teldec vinyl records, but Ive also played older garden variety records with about equal success. It <does> reduce background noise. Item is labelled "Omega One Sound Saver- Transcriber Co. Inc." The next gem is a little, ivory colored plastic, three-legged record clamp. It is marked "EON Canada Patent Pending." Eacj leg has a small rubber tip which presses on the record. A central assembly slips over the turntable center post, the three legs rest on the record. You press down on a plastic collar around the center-post collet. this puts downward pressure on the record which is maintained by the collet's grip on the centerpost. After playing you lift up on the collar and the collet pops off the spindle, releasing the record. It is my impression that this device is cleaning up the sound of my records. The effect is subtle, but it seems to shift the reproduction from disk in the direction of the "clarity" we have come to associate with CD's. I am not usually troubled with acoustic feedback - the margin of stability is quite high, but it is reasonable to assume that long before a system will oscillate from acoustic feedback, the sound quality will be afflicted with ...muddy quality? I don't know. And I admit I could be mistaken, however the difference seems big enough to me that I am now using this gadget full time. It is a minor inconbvenience, but less so than trying to use the ZeroStat. It is extremely light, and is not going to affect my turntable bearings one way or the other. Good Luck, I recommend both gadgets highly. -- "It's the thought, if any, that counts!" Dick Grantges hound!rfg
ben@moncol.UUCP (Bennett Broder) (06/08/85)
No, the benefit of the record clamp is not imaginary, it is one of the reasons that Oracle and Sota vacuum turntables sound so good. There are 4 reasons that record clamps work: -- 1) Vinyl resonances As the stylus accelerates laterally and vertically to follow the groove undulations, forces are generated on the order of 1000 g. All materials have inherent resonances that can be excited if enough energy is applied to them, and vinyl is actually quite a "lively" material in this sense. Some of the brittle harshness heard in modern music systems is actually a result of the stylus reading these mechanical vinyl resonances, which have been excited by the stylus itself. 2) Vinyl as an Energy Storage Medium Vinyl is an elastic material (i.e. "springy") This means that energy that is fed into it is actually absorbed for a certain length of time (like a spring compressing) and then released over a certain length of time (like a spring expanding). The drawbacks are as follows: as the stylus plays a transient it generates a shock wave into the disc. You hear the transient and then you hear it echoing back as the vinyl releases the stored shock wave over time. The major audible effect is a general blurring and smearing of musical detail, since this process is going on throughout the entire duration of the playing record. 3) Vinyl as a Transmitter of Acoustic Energy Acoustic energy in the air is reflected by or stored in the vinyl, and is retransmitted back to the stylus as unwanted vibration. Result: further blurring of detail, usually accompanied by boominess in the bass. 4) Warps This is one we are all familiar with, and is again due to the elasticity of vinyl. Warps upset the stability of the entire playing system, actually cause a change in the pitch of the music in the groove that the warp deforms (warp wow) and in general create severe subsonic problems throughout the entire reproduction chain. A warp also results in a portion of the record being suspended in free air, which increases dramaticlly its susceptibility to all kinds of excitation. -- The above, excerpted from an Oracle white paper, is given in support of their record coupling system, consisting of a special turntable mat, a screw on record clamp, and a little spacer which raises the record slightly in the label area. I would highly recommend purchasing the Oracle Groove Isolator mat and an appropriate record clamp. The Oracle mat is completely flat (sculpted ridges create air pockets under the record that resonate), and made of a special damping plastic absorbs vibration before it can be retransmitted to the stylus. Try tapping the runout groove with a pen and you will see what I mean. On a normal mat the sound is a high pitched 'tick', on a record clamped to the Oracle mat, a dull, barely audible thud. I think you will find that using a record clamp in conjunction with this mat will yield improvements far more noticable than using the clamp alone. Ben Broder ..ihnp4!princeton!moncol!ben ..vax135!petsd!moncol!ben
dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (06/10/85)
The Oracle clamp is particularly effective, I think, because of the spacer under the centre of the record and the fact that the clamp exerts pressure only in a circle at the outer edge of the label area. When it is screwed down, the record would be flexed in a manner that would tend to apply pressure against the mat over most or all of the record surface due to the vinyl's springiness. I haven't seen an aftermarket clamp that works in the same way. Also, the Oracle depends on the turntable having a threaded spindle to screw the clamp onto - could a clamp that just uses a chuck develop as much force? (When I was shopping for a new turntable last year, I considered an Oracle, but eventually decided it was just too much money for me.)