Very interesting. Thanks for posting your review- did you buy this? I hadn’t even heard of it-- apparently Roy Gregory reviewed it this year, and had the same comments about the "Relax" function- not a lot of information from the manufacturer, but according to Roy that feature "heats any disc to a lower maximum temperature and then slowly cools it to remove mechanical stresses from the pressing."
Flattening is, to me, a dark art. I have a Vinyl Flat and a Furutech DF-02. Both work pretty effectively, the difference largely being the degree of labor involved. I have yet to establish guidelines for "repeatability" of effectiveness, and I doubt same exists, largely because the problems of warpage and potential damage each record suffers from vary widely, record to record. (i.e. a warped record that is barely playable may get flattened but still be unplayable due to other problems and occasionally, flattening exacerbates the problem).
One thing I have done on the Furutech is to reduce the amount of heating time applied to medium weight and light weight LPs- which are often the records most plagued by strange warps- due not only to thinness of the pressing, but probably owing to the vinyl formulations used at the time. (I’d say my success rate is probably in the range of 70-75%, which is pretty good, given that I’m usually flattening old records with troublesome warps).
Whether I’d go through the trouble of "processing" otherwise unwarped records to improve the sound would remain a question mark to me, but I haven’t heard it. I’m a little wary of applying heat to records, and only jumped into the "flattening" arena to salvage otherwise unplayable records, so consider the risk small on that front.
Would be interested in further info if you get more from the manufacturer and/or have more to report based on your use of this. It certainly is a nice looking piece of design.
postscript: curious to know if flattening function is lower heat, longer cycle times than the Furutech? The price, Harold, according to Roy’s piece, was in the neighborhood of 2000 Euros (2400-2500 in Germany), though another site quoted a higher price--perhaps that depends on territory/location of purchase.
Flattening is, to me, a dark art. I have a Vinyl Flat and a Furutech DF-02. Both work pretty effectively, the difference largely being the degree of labor involved. I have yet to establish guidelines for "repeatability" of effectiveness, and I doubt same exists, largely because the problems of warpage and potential damage each record suffers from vary widely, record to record. (i.e. a warped record that is barely playable may get flattened but still be unplayable due to other problems and occasionally, flattening exacerbates the problem).
One thing I have done on the Furutech is to reduce the amount of heating time applied to medium weight and light weight LPs- which are often the records most plagued by strange warps- due not only to thinness of the pressing, but probably owing to the vinyl formulations used at the time. (I’d say my success rate is probably in the range of 70-75%, which is pretty good, given that I’m usually flattening old records with troublesome warps).
Whether I’d go through the trouble of "processing" otherwise unwarped records to improve the sound would remain a question mark to me, but I haven’t heard it. I’m a little wary of applying heat to records, and only jumped into the "flattening" arena to salvage otherwise unplayable records, so consider the risk small on that front.
Would be interested in further info if you get more from the manufacturer and/or have more to report based on your use of this. It certainly is a nice looking piece of design.
postscript: curious to know if flattening function is lower heat, longer cycle times than the Furutech? The price, Harold, according to Roy’s piece, was in the neighborhood of 2000 Euros (2400-2500 in Germany), though another site quoted a higher price--perhaps that depends on territory/location of purchase.