New Townshend Rock 7 owner

Bdp24, Lovely description of the Decca sound. I love mine for all the reasons you mentioned. I met Max in London when he had just released the first Rock. He played Pinl Floyd The Wall and I barely recognosed it - the bass was unreal...utterly fast, clean, black between notes down to 30Hzwith no plumminess. My only criticism then was that the table sounded a little dark - like a dark-purple-black coloration.
I heard his newer deck at the NYC Audio show a few years ago and it was not good - sterile and waaaay too bright.

bdp24,

I just spoke with Max. He told me the bearing does have a slight bit of play and mine should be fine. The power supply I have (Merlin) he said isn't a completely dc design. He went on to say he worked on a dc motor for three years and couldn't overcome a glitch that affected speed accuracy and dropped that project. The Merlin he says is his best design and 100% reliable a stable.

He said his new tt will come out in around 6 months and cost 4 times of my unit. He says my tt has bested 10k+ designs and says "I have gold dust".

Congratulations, Slaw! Your new TT will astound you.

I've had my Rock 7 for several years and I absolutely love it. I have yet to hear a better sounding front end... really, this is a special little known TT that when matched with my Helius Omega arm and a Kiseki Purpleheart cartridge, blows away much more pricey competition. The Merlin motor upgrade is expensive, but worth the money, offering an immediate and obvious improvement in sound quality, timing, slam and ease. 

bdp24,
The question of the "un-damped acrylic platter" of the Rock 7... In my conversations with Max, he says it is made of the same material that vinyl records are made from, hence allowing all mechanical vibrations produced at the groove level to dissipate easily throughout the platter and not bounce back at the stylus and creating distortion. A simple, yet ingenious design that really works.

I'd like to offer up another very noticeable upgrade which is probably the least expensive tweak available: replace the standard belt with a custom belt made by Mark Baker at OrginLive.com in the UK. At first thought, I found it hard to believe that a different belt would make any difference at all, but I was very wrong. It was not subtle at all. The belt tightened up the bass even more, focused the instruments in space (especially on jazz and classical) and increased the "jump factor" significantly.

alonski,

Hi,

 In my research, the Rock 7 platter is of a substance called "plastisine"(spelling may be off).

It is indeed a material to mimick the vinyl record. I have had several "acrylic"  platters in house, this is different. Though I've yet to hear it, it is of a different feel, and overall weight as well. Interestingly, as opposed to my VPI's heavy platters, this fairly lightweight platter w/ no ball bearing, spins very, very freely. Almost like one would expect from a heavy, especially heavily outer weighted platter. (This seems to be just one more positive attribute of a very well thought out design!)

I had recently been looking into Origin Live products for a tt project I have going on. In researching the belt, I've found nothing but positive remarks. I obviously, cannot remark on anything yet. It is in my thoughts.

One of my (need to own) cartridges is the K Purpleheart. I'd love to know what viscosity of trough fluid you use with that cart?