I mean, the tonearm is still attached to the plinth, right?

If there's one thing I love, it's having an extremely strong EM field next to my sensitive electronics.

Overall, it does not seem like a solution. When a turntable spins the record at precisely the right speed, the manufacture of the lp, which may be off-center, will also fuck things up. Then again, The Absolute Sound gave the four thousand dollar Technics 1200 direct drive reissue Product of the Year, even though they hated the tonearm. Let's bring back the Nakamichi Dragon CT Self-Centering Turntable! This post brings me to my first argument with a Stereo Store Dude in the late 70's. He had an Oracle, where the record floated on a see-through plastic three pronged propeller thing, and another turntable where you clamped down the record to the metal platter.I asked him which one was better, because they were both expensive but two different ideas altogether. He couldn't answer. He said "They're both good."He looked like Jeff Baxter. I guess I was being a knob, because I couldn't afford either. I bought a plastic Phillips turntable for 100 bucks and it sucked ass. I swore I would someday buy a great turntable, but it wouldn't float the lp in space, and it wouldn't have a rubber wheel thing attached to the platter creating noise/rumble.I don't think your post is too general discussion-y for the tech room, it seems people will still be arguing about which method is better for some time.

twelvepoint wrote:Kinda want to get one of those silly 2-tonearm deals and put them both on a record at the same time and put up a youtube video talking about the amazing depth of soundstage or some mumbo jumbo.Also, I kinda dig that Paul Simon jam, I have to admit...I like that song too.Look, if you have tons of Mono lp's, the 2-tone arm thing isnt so psycho, you could mount a Mono cartridge on one arm and your fave stereo cartridge on the other. It doesen't seem as unreasonable to me as listening to crap earbuds through an I-pod the rest of your life.

phpBB [media]Coveted turntable. 7k in 1986. Why not?The "cheap" one...phpBB [media]I know, pay thousands to play Paul Simon / George Winston "Winter", whatever, I'm playing the Mentaly Ill Gacy's House 45 now on my VPI....

I was kinda day-dreaming how one would go about making a floating turntable the other day but it looks like someone actually made this (or got money to make it, at least--I don't see any reviews or any for immediate purchase). Mag-Lev TurntableI can't find any technical specs nor audio samples (there's a youTube vid from some convention but it's not wired for sound) so I'm guessing it doesn't sound good, but I was wondering why that would be.The platter seems to bob up and down a bit so that could be an issue--and the demonstration on how it has tolerance to vibration or touch doesn't seem that impressive since a light flick seems to get it moving for a long time. I was thinking that if permanent magnets were used for keeping the platter aloft, that should solve the bobbing issue. And couldn't wobble be controlled with an electromagnet near the rim that activates to counter tilt--either a magnetic or optical sensor could give a processor real-time information about how the platter is spinning and an algorithm would determine when to trigger a coil to push the platter out of a wobble?I don't know how rotation is achieved exactly but I'd guess it works like a servo rather than a stepper-motor so I'm guessing the coils are being controlled by sinusoidal signals rather than DC or PCM so the motor shouldn't be blasting out EM waves in the 20Hz-20kHz bandwidth, right? My other thought with using electromagnets to rotate the platter was that it still introduces vibration into the system (similar to how a CRT tv has that ~15.6kHz whine, but maybe at a lower frequency) but I was just guessing.So does anyone else have any idea what the problems or advantages of this thing might be? I mean it looks cool and all but I'm guessing it has a few real issues and probably isn't a pragmatic solution to whatever the problems of a regular, non-floating turntable might be.*note to mods: Sorry if this is too general discussion-y for the tech room and I can move it there if you want. I was just figuring this topic is much more of an engineering thing rather than look-at-this-thing-that-is-either-cool-or-dumb.*

Kinda want to get one of those silly 2-tonearm deals and put them both on a record at the same time and put up a youtube video talking about the amazing depth of soundstage or some mumbo jumbo.Also, I kinda dig that Paul Simon jam, I have to admit...

Steve,This is the bulk eraser we've been looking for!

I didn t know the 2 tonearm systems were stereo/mono. Always assumed it was a moving coil and moving magnet

Those self-centering turntables are amazing.