mc, Groovetracer makes both an acrylic and Delrin version of their Rega replacement platter, which are reported to sound quite different. VPI switched to acrylic for their platters for a while, but quickly considered it a step backwards from the Delrin they were using (for the top layer of the TNT 2-5 and Aries 1 platters, and the entire HW-19), and switched again to first stainless steel (in the TNT-5) and then aluminum.
A reappearance of Black Diamond Racing?
I received an email from Music Direct a couple weeks ago offering the BDR shelves again. Anyone else notice this? I use them extensively in my system and actually use carbon fiber sheets in DIY projects. I'm a big fan of CF's usefulness in audio.
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The lead platter is mostly for looks. Chris came out with a much better platter, but it was all black and my lead shot platter just looks so good especially spinning..... besides, that upgrade would have been in my eyes a half-measure. The Full Monty which I still may do one day, is to have the platter machined out of a Source Shelf. Right around the time I would have done that DJ decided it would be a good idea to steal my turntable design, and so never did get one thick enough for a platter. Could still be done easily enough, bonding a couple Shelf together for thickness then machining the platter. Chris’s brother Bryce did the Teres platters and could probably do one for me easily enough. Just need to get up the motivation to get into it again. |
Oy millercarbon, a lead shot loaded acrylic turntable platter! Geoff also disapproves of lead. Both of my VPI’s have the 1.25" thick TNT platter with a thin sheet of lead bonded to the bottom of the aluminum, a very effective vibration sink. I have both BDR and Goldensound DH cones, using the DH as feet for my Townshend Rock Elite table, whose plinth is an upside-down "baking pan" filled with gypsum. The ceramic DH feet are a better mechanical impedance match for the table’s gypsum bottom surface, but if I had a carbon fiber plinth I imagine the BDR cones might prevail. A carbon fiber turntable plinth---brilliant! Just about any cone is superior to the Mod Squad Tip Toe, which are fabricated of a very soft aluminum. Under a heavy load, in very short order the tips of the cones become compressed and flattened. Okay design, terrible execution. |
mofimadness, a man who clearly has ears and knows how to use them, writes: I knew DJ. Very intelligent and creative. I use BDR products all over my system. Right. Excellent. Same here. And totally agree. BDR is so good, when first discovered I showed it to a friend. A driven, highly motivated audiophile with 30+ years experience constantly trying to find and reverse engineer and DIY every tweak he could find, he rolled his eye at me. "Yeah I’ll try em. But do you have any idea how many times I’ve heard that?" He then proceeded to rattle off a seemingly endless list of stuff he had tried. "It won’t be any good. I’m not paying for anything that doesn’t work." On and on. Next day, same guy calls and you can’t shut him up, just going on and on and on about all the great things he’s hearing, how much better than anything else he’s ever tried, how in the world is this even possible, on and on. This was way back in 92, 93, something like that. Nobody in Washington State had any. DJ agreed to sell to me wholesale until a "real" area retailer came along. Being a stupid stoked audiophile I took them to audio clubs and spent the next year or three taking these into scads of audiophiles homes where they were auditioned under literally hundreds of different components. In all that there were maybe one or two times when the improvement was hard to hear. All the rest of the time it was immediate and obvious. At $60 for 3 BDR Cones are still the best tweak for the buck. Now I didn’t just buy and sell and use. I also tried my best to reverse engineer. Nor did I just use the stuff as intended. I fabricated with it. Had DJ make me some custom bits. Never did find anything or any place the super stiff, highly damped, moderately massive material didn’t perform beyond expectations. Here’s a prime example of what I’m talking about. https://www.theanalogdept.com/c_miller.htm It looks a lot different now with a Conqueror arm and new motor drive, but that’s my table. Built from a Source Shelf. Tried building the same from scratch, tried different methods of carbon fiber. Probably have a hard time finding anyone this side of DJ who knows more about this stuff than me. Fairly hard even just to make it look as good. Then use it, never sounds anywhere near as good. Built a plinth or two, built a bunch of Cones, Pucks, etc. Mostly all I got to show for it is a healthy respect for how much work goes into developing something as good as BDR. Well, that and one pretty darn fine turntable. |
Goldensound is discontinuing their line of DH Cones. I was told this a few weeks ago when I ordered a set. I got the last set of Super cones in the US. They have stock in their Taiwan facility, but that's the last of it. Thanks to @geoffkait for turning me on to these amazing devices. IMO, they add more realism than the BDR. |
Never got off on em. It wasn’t due to lack of trying, either. I find BDR cones to be toward the bottom of my short list with NASA grade ceramics at the top. I have found extremely hard cones sound best, more open and more dynamic and more natural, whereas relatively soft materials sound relatively uh, worse, blunted and compressed. Relatively soft materials such as carbon fiber, brass and hardwood (kind of an oxymoron in this example). The shape of BDR cones is all wrong, too. The correct shape is a ballistic shape a la Super DH (Diamond Hardness) Cone or the robust Michael Green brass cone. “Because it’s what I choose to believe.” - Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus ”Everything is relative.” - A. Einstein |
Every single component in my system is on Cones. Everything but the speakers are on the Shelf. With Cones and Those Things. Speakers on Cones with Pucks. CDP and phono stage each have a small Shelf on top. Still never have heard anything better. DJ died some years ago, thought he took the secret with him. Makes me wonder if its still being made how its being made and who knows how to do it? |
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