Glass, Acrylic & MDF turntable platter differences

WongKN wrote:Is this an 'upgrade mod' from Rega for their Plannar series of TTs ? If so, which Plannar models is it available for and how much for one. I desperately want to avoid spending any more money on my system but the hands are always so itchy !!

I'm sure the acrylic platter is a drop in replacement/alternative for all Planar and newer P1 to p3.
Whether the sonic benefit suit you or not, I reckon you'd have to audition it and form your own judgement. I suppose you could lug your TT to Asia Sound for a trial?

Mugenfoo, I remember you asked whats my point about squeezing the last bit?, perhaps Mr Wong here may have provided and answer at the last sentence.

WongKN wrote: I desperately want to avoid spending any more money on my system but the hands are always so itchy !!

Oh.. lots of people have this problem.
Mopiko, Tiger Balm and Axe Brand oil also cannot help one..

Yesterday, I baru kena the itchiness..

car o scope wrote:
Yesterday, I baru kena the itchiness..

Thats quite easy to solve temporarily...go for a vacation...as far away from your hifi rig. People went for vacation during the holiday season, Now you go, off peak rates, and the place all to yourself.
OTH its very possible the itchiness stops or heals itself immediately after you've sunk in money for either a wise or unwise purchase.

mugenfoo,
Did not realised the post from you, hence the late response..
Yes certainly looked 'tail heavy' due to the camera angle... but if viewed from the same side and plane of the vinyl and cartridge, no problemo!

I used an old Sony Cybershot P-73 (3.2Megapix)which took terribly good macro shots. Nope, no macro lense attachment necessary.. Till now I have not bought new 'thin' ones as this old ones still works like a charm. No need face or smile detection functions... Like TTs.. they don't make cameras like they used too eh? ...

mugenfoo wrote:Looks slightly "tail low" to me !

But damn good photo though. What camera did u use ? Was the pict taken without the help of a Macro lens ?

jazzy939 wrote:I just use my eyes.. making sure the cartridge is parallel to the vinyl surface..more or less..

cmboy wrote:
Thats quite easy to solve temporarily...go for a vacation...as far away from your hifi rig. People went for vacation during the holiday season, Now you go, off peak rates, and the place all to yourself.
OTH its very possible the itchiness stops or heals itself immediately after you've sunk in money for either a wise or unwise purchase.

I guess that will only bring temporary effect.
Once gather with the kakis again after the vacation, the itchiness will come back instantly even faster than cooking maggi mee.
Then lagi teruk coz paid vacation and then need to pay for the new toy some more.. hahahahahahaha...

Just to repeat what's been said:

The acrylic platter offered at AsiaSound can be placed on the Rega P3 without any need for modding the sub-platter yes? I should go and audition the thing la if like this. Thanks guys.

Yes. Just plonk it in and you are good to go.

kamen555 wrote:Just to repeat what's been said:

The acrylic platter offered at AsiaSound can be placed on the Rega P3 without any need for modding the sub-platter yes? I should go and audition the thing la if like this. Thanks guys.

btw, u are supposed to use the asia sound acrylic platter without mat. just place the record on it.

Oh really?

jazzy939 wrote:Oh really?

Some famous brands also recommend to just place the LP on the acrylic platter without any mat.

But those model of TT would come with a record clamp to weigh down the LP to the acrylic.

Look at the Clearaudio and some Pro-Ject models.

But it is also good to experiment with different mat types to get the type of sound you like. Only hassle is need to re-adjust VTA again and this is very
"leceh". Otherwise the change in sound is due to change in VTA angle+mat instead of just the mat alone.

Sorry I beg to differ that its used without a mat. For anyone critical on the sonic benefit thereon, I'm sure anyone can choose, experiment and suit yourself with or without the a mat.
Personally I prefer with the mat, most preferably the optional Rega color mat.

Yes, those coloured felt mats from Rega are great. The black one, the sound a bit dark and moody, the yellow one a bit in-your-face and bright, the blue one somewhat cool sounding, the orange one too coloured for me ... wonder if they'll make a transparent one so it'll be neutral ...

Whoa!... intriguing!.. I got 3 of them different colors, I don't hear any difference apart from the stock black one which I understand is of a inferior material. Now it makes me wonder if all the different colored Rega decks can be sonically different.

You need to complement the mat colour with the turntable colour for a neutral sound, shouldn't be the same colour, cancels the energy ... the yin and yang thing, you know ... still

Ok...perhaps I'll attempt to apply some Feng Shui fundamentals into my hifi rig (hopefully costing me nothing), Hifi to be placed on West side?... Errrr... have to re-read some Fung Shui books I may have..

Very important which direction the stylus points. Anything but down and the implications are not good ...

cmboy,
on a serious note...

like mugenfoo said, clearaudio and project turntables with vinyl platters need not be used with mats.
i remember in the old days a turntable called pink triangle that started this trend.
but that does not mean u cannot experiment with mats - coloured or otherwise - but watch out for the vta.

as for feng shui, there are actually some people in taiwan and hong kong who believe in these things. someone told me about this sifu who adjusted the position of some turntable or cd player and claimed they sounded best facing a certain direction.

you can experiment with feng shui positioning too - with or without the mat - but plse tell us the results.

Surely repositioning our audio hardware will somehow affect the audio due to 'acoustics'?

Am still thinking how different coloured mats affect sounds though..

Colours have an energy too, you know ... and they're of different wavelengths ...

Ahhh... right! The energy and wavelengths..
Now if we were to play these multi coloured systems in a dimmed/darkened room, will it make any 'difference' at all? Hmmm...

Will there be any fruity smell too?
Like for eg, Orange when the colour is orange, Strawberry when the colour is red and Grape when the colour is purple. hahahahahaha...

Hmmm scented mats.. a new marketing gimmick that has yet to be explored!

Are we OT too much here? My apologies...

Jokes aside... there is a German professor who states that a typical turntable with pivoting arm should be generally between west & south-west facing, biased a few degrees northwards or southwards depending on location latitude; anyone with a decent fundamental in physics would understand why:
It's to neutralise the earth's rotation to have minimal effect on the tonearm.

Of course, one could also compensate the same with the anti-skate bias to also account for the earth's rotational moment on the tonearm.

For Tangential arm TTs and located right smack on the equator, true west facing would be the "ideal orientation".

Food for thought.

bassraptor wrote:Very important which direction the stylus points. Anything but down and the implications are not good ...

OT - what about old school aluminium platters like Linn LP12? Its mass is required for speed stability, and thick enough to reduce "ringing".

I use 2" (50mm) thick aluminium platter with Boston Audio Mat 1 which is a solid graphite mat. I think it matches well with aluminium platters and cuts surface noises. Anyone tried the Mat-1?

Ringing is the property of an object's natural frequency aka resonance.
Pretty much all metal & glass based platters will have this "ringing" phenomenon.

Wood and acrylic platters would exhibit almost zero ringing due to its molecular structure.

But who knows? Maybe the platter's ringing might contribute some factors to what some people perceive as "good sounding" or "rich sounding".

Besides, the platter material is just one of many design factors that collectively determine how the whole TT system sounds.

CLH wrote:OT - what about old school aluminium platters like Linn LP12? Its mass is required for speed stability, and thick enough to reduce "ringing".

I use 2" (50mm) thick aluminium platter with Boston Audio Mat 1 which is a solid graphite mat. I think it matches well with aluminium platters and cuts surface noises. Anyone tried the Mat-1?

Well said mugenfoo and I agree to that!
It's part of a 'balanced' system...