I have been playing with several record weight for the past year. My house was going through major renovation and I had no toys to play with for 2-yars, so I bought a few record weights and tried them on several friends' systems.
In the arsenal are: VPI stock clamp, DIY African ebony wight, Furutech Tu-812, HRS, and two versions of Indonisian ebony weight ( same manufacture, one is same weight as the Kuzma, the other about 1/2 lb.
We had tried them on VPI and Clearaudio tables. The results are fairly similar. The HRS was the most consistent as it did not take away information, and had an evenly overall improvement and sounded good on all types of music. The Furutech seems to emphasize on the highs and took away some bass, but had a very good sense of realism. The DIY ebony provided some warmth and organic quality to the sound, but completely sucked out of the bass. The Asian ebony, on the other hand, has all the good quality of the African ebony but retains the bass. VPI clamp sounded veiled and lifeless compared to all of these, even on the ScoutMaster Reference.
We had also compared them to the Kuzma XL, and feel that the Asian ebony has an edge over the Kuzma. Both of them are made of "ebony", so maybe from different continents? The Indonisian one sinks to the bottom when put in the water and feel much more dense. My friend had since sold the Kuzma and kept the Indonesian one.
Note that all the previous comparison were done on non-spring-loaded tables. I had just done the comparison last week on my Michell Orbe SE against the stock clamp. I also use a peripheral ring. The additional weight did not affect the speed too much. But the heavier ones like the Furutech and the heavier version of the Indonesian ebony basically pushed the platter all the way down, nulling the spring effect. But it seems to solidify instrument/voice separation. In this regard, the stock clamp performed the worst, as the edge of a singer or instrument seemed a bit fuzzy or "leaky". All the other medium-sized weights solidify and separate the instruments/voices better, but not as good as the heavy weights.
On my table, both the HRS and the lighter weight Chinese ebony performed equally well. I've not spend time focusing on comparing the two against each other yet. I've also not tried the heavier Chinese ebony yet, as I figure it would push my table all the way down like the Furutech.
One note is that with warped LPs, I get a rumble when using all the weights. The only way to get rid of that rumble is to use the clamp to tighten it down to the platter. Because my table is spring-loaded, I had to use the lightest peripheral ring. It helps flatten some lightly warped LPs, but does not on others.
The Indonesian ebony was purchased on eBay. The guy also sells ebony feet and cubes. The prices are fairly reasonable, and they arrive within a week from Hong Kong.
FrankC
In the arsenal are: VPI stock clamp, DIY African ebony wight, Furutech Tu-812, HRS, and two versions of Indonisian ebony weight ( same manufacture, one is same weight as the Kuzma, the other about 1/2 lb.
We had tried them on VPI and Clearaudio tables. The results are fairly similar. The HRS was the most consistent as it did not take away information, and had an evenly overall improvement and sounded good on all types of music. The Furutech seems to emphasize on the highs and took away some bass, but had a very good sense of realism. The DIY ebony provided some warmth and organic quality to the sound, but completely sucked out of the bass. The Asian ebony, on the other hand, has all the good quality of the African ebony but retains the bass. VPI clamp sounded veiled and lifeless compared to all of these, even on the ScoutMaster Reference.
We had also compared them to the Kuzma XL, and feel that the Asian ebony has an edge over the Kuzma. Both of them are made of "ebony", so maybe from different continents? The Indonisian one sinks to the bottom when put in the water and feel much more dense. My friend had since sold the Kuzma and kept the Indonesian one.
Note that all the previous comparison were done on non-spring-loaded tables. I had just done the comparison last week on my Michell Orbe SE against the stock clamp. I also use a peripheral ring. The additional weight did not affect the speed too much. But the heavier ones like the Furutech and the heavier version of the Indonesian ebony basically pushed the platter all the way down, nulling the spring effect. But it seems to solidify instrument/voice separation. In this regard, the stock clamp performed the worst, as the edge of a singer or instrument seemed a bit fuzzy or "leaky". All the other medium-sized weights solidify and separate the instruments/voices better, but not as good as the heavy weights.
On my table, both the HRS and the lighter weight Chinese ebony performed equally well. I've not spend time focusing on comparing the two against each other yet. I've also not tried the heavier Chinese ebony yet, as I figure it would push my table all the way down like the Furutech.
One note is that with warped LPs, I get a rumble when using all the weights. The only way to get rid of that rumble is to use the clamp to tighten it down to the platter. Because my table is spring-loaded, I had to use the lightest peripheral ring. It helps flatten some lightly warped LPs, but does not on others.
The Indonesian ebony was purchased on eBay. The guy also sells ebony feet and cubes. The prices are fairly reasonable, and they arrive within a week from Hong Kong.
FrankC