Most popular TT upgrades: skeptical but curious...

Michell techno weight adds a stiffer end stub to an RB250 and the geometry of the weight helps offset the downside of a unipivot design by lowering the arm's center of gravity and making the weight act as a sort of "outrigger" to stabilize the unipivot a little more.

Plinth/legs/cones/pucks/isoblocks when optimized to a given turntable should drain vibration out of the turntable innards and into the block, and isolate the turntable platform from in-room vibrations and feedback. Either or both lower the noise floor, quell or reduce resonances, and thereby improve dynamics and inner detail.

Record clamps and weights change the resonance pitch and amplitude of the LP itself, reduces slippage between the record and the platter, thereby improving pace and dynamics, and in my experience with a direct drive turntable, the KAB rubber clamp I use reduces spindle and surface noise.

05-08-08: Rccc
Johnnyb53, The rb 250 is not a unipivot.

Woops, you're right. I've read various articles that seem to say that it is, but it obviously has an axle bearing for vertical movement.

Have you ever actually seen the reduced resonance from using a puck or similar device like on a scope or with any measurement equipment?

No, and I didn't know that was a requirement for posting here. It comes down to this: I have a buttload of used LPs I've gathered from thrift shops and dollar bins over the past year. On some records, the surface noise is a bit distracting; then I put the KAB record grip on and the surface noise recedes into the background enough to enable me to enjoy the record. It's happened many times on many records. But am I going to go out and get an oscilloscope and post pictures to satisfy you? I don't think so.

A record clamp reduces slippage? In 40+ years of playing records Ive never seen or heard of a record slipping during play.

There are too many articles to count that talk about stylus drag affecting speed consistency. It's not an extraordinary leap in logic that if there is such a thing as stylus drag, that if the record were on a felt mat there could be microscopic slippage at the record/mat interface--enough to audibly affect pitch or tempo--without necessarily causing the belt to wobble or actually slow down the motor. After all, the modulations in a record groove are microscopic--down to .1 micron. Why couldn't a groove area with heavy modulation induce speed fluctuations, including some microscopic record slippage?

Or do I have to furnish electron micrographs of the actual event accompanied by time stamps to the 1/1000 of a second to satisfy the Posting Police?

05-14-08: Rccc
Im not policing your post Im simply pointing out your observations are audio folklore that should have been put to bed years ago instead of being perpetuated on the internet.

This "pointing out" of "observations [that] are audio folklore" and that they "should have been put to bed years ago" are the very definition of being the Posting Police.

As for whether stylus drag has an audible effect, why do most audiophile turntable designs try to do something about it, sometimes going to extreme measures? Why do some belt-drive turntables have platters so heavy (for the flywheel effect) that they have to use opposing magnets or air bearings to keep their 40-80 lb. platters from grinding down conventional bearings? Why are direct drive turntables servo controlled? Why did Teres introduce the Certus drive (which they go to great lengths to explain how it addresses audible stylus drag)? Why do enthusiasts seek out the old pro quality idler drive turntables? It seems to me a lot of thought and effort goes into addressing stylus drag, from designers to users, while you make it sound like I'm the lone crackpot.

Enter "stylus drag" in Google and you'll get 37 screens' worth of returns, including references to John Watkinson's book, "The Art of Sound Reproduction." Enter "John Watkinson" and "Art of Sound Reproduction" and you'll get 6 screens' worth for that very specific entry alone.

I suppose, however, that you could pronounce this audio/video consultant and author "not credible" if you choose to, but that would be arbitrary and subjective too, wouldn't it?