2020 update : JC Verdier La Platine

@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.

oh yes:

- figure 8.  that way i guess u get the double but don’t have to make 2 exactly the same length silk belts which i think i would fail.  also only one knot!  i am using sewing thread made from silk.  i have ordered surgical silk thread which is a bit different apparently.

- when i made my doubled belt it was so short i had to have the motor half under the plinth of the turntable.  my latest loop is too long and so now i don’t have that anymore, instead the motor is one foot to the left.  making thread loops is not straightforward i find.  a bit of trial and error.

- i am continuing to listen to this.  i feel like it sounds very good.  i remember reading about the la platine when i was getting into them and the callas mod.  a fellow said the la platine, when not on bearing, lacked for piano.  so i pay alot of attention to the piano.  maybe it is the cart/tonearm combo that helps, but i do feel the double wrapped has helped with piano.  everything sounds more dynamic and with a better toe tapping beat. 

- last night i listened to bob dylan’s oh mercy late at night.  like 1 am.  i was expecting a closed in record which is as i recall it.  instead it was open, dynamic and quite extraordinary (both in absolute terms but also versus expectation).  i felt like i was looking at huge format paintings that hang in the sapporo gallery.  i had been expecting a tiny 12 inch by 9 inch vague landscape with age dulled colours and instead i got grand exposition.  it was thrilling.  prior to that earlier in evening wife and i listened to ’Cabaret".  the depth of Liza Minelli’s talent was on full display and it was staggering.

@mr_gray 

I do have to acknowledge comments by @pindac above about his vinyl journey. But more importantly it is about your enthusiasm for the La Platine, in particular, and your joy on full display with vinyl playing in general. It is infectious! I now feel guilty when not playing records.

Just when I thought all stones have been turned, you come up with this double loop idea. It seems counterintuitive at first. The logic was to reduce the contact area as much as possible while still maintaining speed. But the truth was the tiny silk thread was struggling to maintain speed especially on 45s’. And the additional loop really increase very little. It now looks like the thickness of the original linen thread. But the soundstage is more defined with better width / depth presentation. I have planar magnetic speakers. At low volume, the soundstage flattens. That has not changed. But at regular listening levels ( 75-80 db ), the soundstage is holographic. Because of the back and forth on this thread recently, I further refines my setup. The soundstage was improved already. But this takes it further, a very nice uptick.

@lewm 

The threads we use are regular sewing threads that we tie together. It is impossible to tie two loops with identical diameters. The first attempt at the double loop resulted in a very similar situation as @mr_gray. The loop was too small and the motor almost touched the plinth. I have a better managed distance between the two now.