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Mag Lev Turntable. Your Thoughts?

One is for sale on Audiogon. Very cool BUT, I can think of a bunch of potential problems. My instinct says it is showmanship but not having actually played with one who knows? Anybody have any experience with the Mag Lev?
The first problem would be that magnetic fields are not solid. They are squishy. What happens when you play different weight records. What about a record clamp? The tonearm is fixed to the plinth. If the height of the platter changes the VTA changes. If the platter bounces at all it will cause rather rapid speed variations. What about those powerful magnetic fields right under cartridges. Looking at the video the platter certainly is not machined very well.
Is it really worth the trouble. Good tables make very little noise. 99% of it is coming from the record itself. My inclination is that the platter should be on a solid footing.
128x128mijostyn

Showing 1 response by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,574 posts
 
The coupling between the platter surface and the base of the tone arm must be as rigid and dead as possible. To this end, the bearing can have no slop (but at the same time can't make noise and has to be free) and the plinth be as rigid and dead as possible. Anything short of this will be interpreted by the pickup as coloration should any vibration be introduced. IOW the base of the arm has to vibrate in the same plane and rate as the platter so as to be unable to interpret the vibration as a signal.

Obviously a magnetic suspension flies right in the face of this.
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