Ring Clamps. What do you think?

Ever notice the interlocking joints on the pavement of a long bridge? The bridge needs to have some play or it will surely collapse.

The interlocking joints on bridges protect the bridge from thermal expansion/contraction due to thermal extremes and water/ice infiltration. Turntables are not exposed to such factors. A less relevant example would be difficult to imagine.

Movement certainly has a place in TT design. Nobody's denied that. Specifically, the platter must rotate at the selected speed, preferably with minimal deviations due to external inputs like stylus drag. Additionally, suspended turntables are designed to move under elastic, spring-loaded controls to reduce the amplitude and frequecy of vibrations. (BTW, this is the exact opposite of the expansion joints in a bridge.) Beyond these two specific types of movement, the less a TT moves, the better its sonic performance.

Air, on the other hand, has little practical relevance to TT design (air bearing designs excepted, obviously). Most vinyl rigs would in fact perform better in a vacuum, as that would eliminate airborne vibrations as a source of sonic mud.

This last fact highlights the absurdity of comparing a TT to a guitar or any other musical instrument, as none of them would perform in a vacuum at all.

I would think a heavy metal deadening ring would do just that, deadening the sound.

You might think that, but as you've apparently never actually used one, you're just speculating. Why post a question to people who've actually done the experiment, then argue with their results? Are you seeking validation of your flawed assumptions, or just trolling?

It's really interesting to see how all of us agree "in principle", yet we are in separate camps, in many ways, on "practice". I think I know what TT Doug uses, and I also know that it is made by a guy who probably did an excellent job in providing a platter that does just what Doug says it does, drains energy and dissipates it in the platter. Some other less well designed platters will instead store energy, as well as reflect energy back into the LP, and can possibly be set in some resonance mode by energy entering the platter via the LP, during play. In that case, clamping might not be a good idea. Factors such as this could account for our different opinions of ring and center weights.

+1 to Lewm

Not only my platter, but my bearing, plinth, armboard and TT supports were all designed and built to dissipate/dampen vibrations. Clamping on this table is beneficial.

My secondary TT is the just opposite, noisy motor and the platter rings like a bell. Clamping a record to that rig is a sonic disaster

My summary was:
Couple TO quiet materials, isolate FROM from noisy ones.

We're in complete agreement.

It's really interesting to see how all of us agree "in principle", yet we are in separate camps, in many ways, on "practice".

“In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.” - attributed to Albert Einstein, Yogi Berra!!!! and Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut.

One of the problems here is we have no universally accepted way of "measuring" or judging if we have achieved our objective, i.e., better sound. We can't even agree on what better sound is. That's OK. Better sound is, despite our best engineering and scientific efforts, a judgment call. Beauty is in the ear of the beholder. That's not to say that Doug's observations are incorrect (I think that they make a great deal of sense and explain very well why different people report different results) or that there are not certain principles, theories and practices that we can agree on. But when it comes down to whether or not a ring clamp is "better" on a particular TT/arm/Cart/RIAA/pre/amp/speaker system than a center clamp or a center clamp + ring, ultimately, you have to decide yourself whether the practice (what you hear) conforms to your theory. If not, then maybe your theory needs to be revised... or maybe your practice. No way for us to know in advance. I also think that part of the problem is our innate desire to oversimplify complex systems.

And yet, Swampwalker, if two of us were in the same room with the same system, I think there would be a lot of agreement about what sounded good and what did not, on that particular system.

By the way, Albert and Yogi had a contractual agreement. Yogi could get credit for any quote that was embarrassing to Albert. It was actually Albert who said, in regard to a restaurant in NYC, "Nobody goes there any more; it's too crowded."

Albert also said "Physics is 50% luck and 90% genius."