Hammacher Schlemmer has Kronos $28,000

Love the exposure. That's an SME V-12 arm (non detachable headshell). I spoke to the designer about this at the NYC show a couple of weeks ago. He used the V-12 two years ago and the 12" Grahm this year. He told me that the counter-rotating platters cancel the tendency for the plinth to rotate in the horizontal plane around the axis of the bearing.

Bearings aren't frictionless, but if they have very very little friction, I wonder how much this force really matters. I also think that two motors with two rotating platters may introduce more vibrations into a system than having only one of each.

I wonder what kind of set up service and ongoing service HS will give to its customers. It is great to see this on the cover, though.

Lewm, I'm trying to understand your point. In a conventional turntable design where the one platter is rotating clockwise, that is the "action". What is the "equal and opposite" reaction?

The Kronos designer told me that the platter rotating tends to make the supporting plinth rotate also, I guess in the SAME direction due to bearing friction, ie. clockwise. But if the friction is low, then how much of an issue is this really for all other conventional turntables?

Now apply this principle to the lower platter on the Kronos. That platter is rotating in the opposite direction making that second, lower plinth rotate slightly in that direction, ie. counter-clockwise. It seems that the platters cancel each other, but the two plinths which are floating due to the SME like four leg towers, are rotating in opposite directions and they meet at the four corners. Those forces are acting on the four legs in opposite directions. So it seems to me that the forces are not cancelled by the rotating platters but by sheer force at the corner leg supports.

I did not think to ask the designer to clarify this for me, so perhaps I am completely misunderstanding the point. This may be the wrong thread to discuss the technical design of the Kronos, so I apologize to the OP.

Just watched the video of the spinner in the suitcase. Is that what surface noise sounds like? Scary.