Natural Sound

[PeterA]

This afternoon I made a loop out of thread to drive the massive platter of the American Sound turntable. It took some finagling to get the proper speed and tension, but the result is more natural sound and a listening experience a bit closer to the real thing. The single most obvious improvement is more realistic timbre. And oh that bass has nuance.

I think what is going on is that there is less noise being transmitted to the platter from the motor. This means less noise in the reproduction for a drop in the noise floor. I hear more information. But this is the opposite of a blacker background. I hear more ambience around and between the musicians playing their instruments up on stage. The sonic picture is more complete.

Another step in the right direction.

 

[tima]

The single most obvious improvement is more realistic timbre. And oh that bass has nuance.

I appreciate your straightforward description, and I enjoy hearing of your experiments.

One of the things I enjoy about large scale orchestral music is the mid to lower bass along with lower brass and percussion as they provide the foundation and rhythm for strings, woodwinds and higher brass. Sometimes the composer has them playing ostinato (repeated over and over) for a churning effect, but sometimes the 'background' gets a more interesting part that drives the flow, sometimes the background is syncopated with other sections, sometimes they get the melody.. You can find a lot of musical interest in the lower frequencies.

I find more lower frequency nuance, texture and greater harmonic differentiation as systems improve -- the AS2000 and the rest of David's system with whichever speakers we tried proved the best combination of articulation and integration of the rhythm section within itself and the rest of the orchestra as I have heard. I think about that after the fact not during the performance where there is simply wonder.

 

[PeterA]

Here’s another interesting observation. When there is no connection between the motor and the platter, I can spin the platter and it continues to rotate for a very long time before coming to rest. With the stretchy rubber belt and the Micro Seiki non-stretch belt, the platter slowed down fairly quickly. With the dental floss connection to the motor, the platter took longer to stop. And with the thread connection to the motor pulley, the platter takes almost as long to stop as if there were no connection to the motor.

I think these observations somewhat explain the decrease in noise and increase in information that I hear when lessening the impact of the motor on the platter with the more minimal connection. There is less motor “touch” on the platter with the very thin thread connection. The motor basically maintains the platter speed from dropping, but the inertia of the massive platter requires very little influence from the motor. This is when the music sounds best.

 

[Fishfood]

Thanks for the clear explanation. I had a similar experience switching my VPI Aries to first a silk thread and then Dyneema thread. I've been experimenting with different knots trying to get rid of the bump that I hear when it passes over the the motor. I'm trying the Micro Seiki one that was posted on this site next.

 

[Fishfood]

Zero bump sound with this Micro Seiki knot on the Dyneema thread!

 

[PeterA]

Zero bump sound with this Micro Seiki knot on the Dyneema thread!


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I don’t hear a thing when the knot hits the motor pulley with either the dental floss knot or the thread knot. And there seems to be no variation in speed. I am glad you’re finding success.

 

[PeterA]

More Natural Sound










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[Fishfood]

I can't wait to see what's inside! Congratulations!

 

[Ron Resnick]

Congratulations, Peter! I am very, very happy for you!

 

[dan31]

That is the end step. Enjoy the music!

 

[Folsom]

That is the end step. Enjoy the music!

Afraid not, he still has to blow 5 discs getting it assembled.

 

[bonzo75]

More Natural Sound










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Are you sending back the 1000 or getting in the 2000

 

[tima]

How cool is that logo. What a class act!

 

[PeterA]

Are you sending back the 1000 or getting in the 2000

Both. David offered me the last of the American Sound AS2000 turntables, number 10 of 12. I drove yesterday to the factory where they are produced to pick it up. I will now pack up the Micro Seiki and the original AS1000 and ship them back to Utah. Then I can set up the new turntable.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Both. David offered me the last of the American Sound AS2000 turntables, number 10 of 12. I drove yesterday to the factory where they are produced to pick it up. I will now pack up the Micro Seiki and the original AS1000 and ship them back to Utah. Then I can set up the new turntable.

Congrats, Peter. That is fantastic.

 

[andromedaaudio]

Peter doesn t do half work , congrats

 

[PeterA]

Thank you everyone. David has been very busy with Tang’s speaker project. Otherwise we would have picked the turntable up together and set it up together. He will be visiting later when he is available for fine-tuning. All I can say is that it’s a great opportunity and a real pleasure to do business with David. I am looking very forward to further improving the sound of my system.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Thank you everyone. David has been very busy with Tang’s speaker project. Otherwise we would have picked the turntable up together and set it up together. He will be visiting later when he is available for fine-tuning. All I can say is that it’s a great opportunity and a real pleasure to do business with David. I am looking very forward to further improving the sound of my system.

Very jealous, Peter. Enjoy your new TT. And don’t forget to send some vids in due course

 

[Fishfood]

How cool is that logo. What a class act!

It is cool but I've been staring at that logo for about 5 minutes trying to figure out what it is....

 

[djsina2]

It is cool but I've been staring at that logo for about 5 minutes trying to figure out what it is....

“Morning” in Japanese?