Record Clamp?????

Thank you for the responses to my question,I feel that many people are very nice to take the time to try to help!

In a world with perfectly flat records and platters with no resonance, clamps and mats probably wouldn't be necessary and, as Dougdeacon points out, might even be counterproductive. On both my Music Hall MMF-2.1 and my Thorens TD 150 the platters were ringy enough to need a mat and some of my records have warp enough to need a clamp. On my current Well Tempered, the acrylic platter works great without a mat, and has a slight dish along with with a screw clamp to tightly couple even a flat record.

Clamps are definitely an area where you'll get no consensus among manufacturers OR audiophiles.

"Most" Linn owners use a mat and not a clamp. The reason is partly something that Bdgregory and Armstrod already mentioned: lightly suspended decks don't like extra weight and moving mass. If you do add a clamp you might have to retune the suspension, though the Michell is pretty light, as they said.

Another reason is that clamps and mats are inherently counter-productive. Clamps are designed to couple a record tightly TO the platter. Mats are designed to de-couple a record FROM the platter. Either method could sound best on a particular table, but trying to do both simultaneously seems problematic.

YMMV of course. I could be all wet since this is all theoretical. I don't own a Linn either.

To the best of my knowledge, Linn never supplied a clamp with the LP12 and does not recommend their use. I personally went clampless a few years ago (when using a VPI TNT that WAS designed to accommodate a clamp) and never looked back. I think they deaden the sound, but YMMV. Dave

I also recommend the Michell record clamp - it's inexpensive, works great, and is light enough to be benign on suspended decks. Michael at Britaudio.com always has them, and there are some eBay vendors too.

I'm not at all an authority but did a little surfing already and I use the Michel clamp with my Pink Triangle table. It works nicely on any table (eg Linn) that doesn't have the clamp designed in like the Music Hall or VPI do using a threaded spindle. The other consideration is it's light weight, and for a suspended table like the Linn you probably don't want to use a heavy "mass-type" of clamp.

Do a search of the archives on "clamp" and you'll see lot's of other discussion.