2020 update : JC Verdier La Platine

@mr_gray 

Your experience on the silk drive mirrors mine. It’s very quiet, though I have not done A/B with linen in a while. And holding speed on  45’s is a struggle with loose fit. I cheat and tighten up the tension on the silk thread. 

I tried a Micro Seiki belt made by Original Live today. And sure enough it produced more noise and sounded slower. 
 

@ledoux1238 this is good. If we hear the same things then I think that is very reassuring. Because frankly with so many variables on the la platine, and it being quite sensitive to these variables, one could easily trick oneself. It’s perhaps tedious of me but I returned to thread lastnight due a perceived lack of dynamics with the silk. A sort of listless sound unless I had the volume turned right up. 
 

anyway at some stage thought came to me to try a double loop of silk. I’m now listening to exile on Main Street. At relatively low volume. It sounds alive. Dynamic. Transparent. And has jump. I think you should give it a shot. It’s toe tapping without sounding all thick and plastic like garrard did. 

also dover had the same thoughts although he identified "surgical" silk and said if loose it could be "chalked" (presumably to give grip).  i have the motor partially under the turntable now and a double loop of silk thread and it is driving!  

@mr_gray I have visited this thread reading Posts from 2024 and 2025, as certain content has an appeal to me.

You have Stated " It sounds absolutely tremendous ", such a statement really does touch home with my own discoveries made over many years of investigative learning, where experiences had have been extremely impressive and wanted to be maintained and encouraged furthering the learning to see where betterment has been able to be added.

I have been involved in being closely associated with others who are using their knowledge and skills for eking out improvement from Mechanical Interfaces on a TT for near 30 years.

I started during the 90's when a Martin Bastin design for a Garrard 401 Platter Bearing was adopted. The impression this exchange made, has been the foundation for the long time follow up for investigating variants of a design on a Platter Spindle Bearing, to get betterment at Interfaces where Sacrificial Parts within a Bearing Housing are occurring.   

Learning that followed, led to discussion about designs, where low coefficient of friction interfaces within the Bearing Housing and what is able to be achieved for quietness of operation for the Platter Spindles Bearing Mechanical Function were to be pursued. This same discussion led to showing an interest in what was required for accurately maintaining a True Axis for a Platter Spindle Rotation.

Always running parallel with these disciplines has been materials selection and  machining tolerances that can be produced and maintained at an interface. Stability of materials functioning in a particular type of environment and produced to have extremely tight dimension tolerances, is a critical property when the lowest coefficient of frictions able to be produced are part of a design intent.

As Trueness of Axis Rotation was proved to be available, this then led to the importance of producing accurately and maintaining Spindle to Pivot Distance.

Materials used to attach the separate Parts for the Replay of Vinyl to occur, during the earliest days were being selected for their stability in a range of environments. Minimum expansion/contraction of a material has been the property wanted for a selected material as the earliest designs objective.

Mass Stone (Granite) was my choice, over other choices that could have been adopted, other Stone, Metal or Complex Timber Structure were alternates to be used.

A continued interest for materials, led to the most recent material I am a advocate of, being a Resin Impregnated Densified Wood Board.

Densified Wood Board, is a material type that compared to other more typical options, excels for Damping / Dissipation Properties and is also extremely stable in a multitude of environments, a Typical Home environment is no challenge to it.

Densified Wood Board as a material is very suitable for managing energies transferred from a TT's mechanical operation, as well as managing energies transferred from the Ambient Environment.

( Linn recently decided to charge $8K+ for their TT owners to experience Densified Wood Board as a type of material).

The end of the road is not yet met, as interest in this subject remains strong, the areas needing to be considered is extensive. Alternate methods for mounting items are already in place and under assessment, Optimisation of Source Medium is also now a discipline that has very satisfying results, Optimisation of the Electrical Signal Path through adopting differing designs have proved through recent designs put in place proven to be game changers. All designs are now wanted to be maintained, but there are those that will not be reversed, only to be built on.

All are combined into one improvement for the End Sound and All are very important as they are indicators that the evolved disciplines in practice are very worthwhile. 

For myself, I am fully getting your wonderment and the keenness to build on what is already seen as positives to be maintained, that add up to more than the sum of the Parts used to achieve the experience. 

Mr gray, can you better describe “double loop” of silk? Do you mean two separate silk thread belts or one double size loop that you make into a figure 8? Also I wonder what you mean when you say the motor is under the TT. Thx.