Replaced Mylar Belt with Kapton (Polyimide) Belt. Very Nice Results


I have  Teres 340 TT which I have been using Mylar Tape as the drive belt. I make my own using the recipe of Doug Deacon from several yrs ago. Since I was in need of another belt and didn't have all the necessary material, I began looking around. This brought me to the Gabilier Website. Since Thom Macree and Chris Brady had originally worked together on the Teres project, I looked around and found that Kapton is the preferred material for their belts. So, since the tape is pretty inexpensive, I had to try it. I finished 2 of them yesterday.

I set out to test the belt at about 3:30-4 o'clock and my wife & I were so enamored at the Improvement that We didn't quit til about 10 o'clock. One other mod I had made the previous night was to try my Rollerball footers under my amp. I listened to it the previous night but only one album. Yes, I believe the RB feet improved the sound but was unsure. So I had 2 potential tweaks that were at work. So I'm not sure if I can say the all the improvement came from the belt alone. But it was a big improvement from the earlier night. 

I will listen again soon to verify the results...or dismiss them. Then I will remove the Rollerball footers to  see if there is a difference. One other caveat is that the Mylar belt was not new but used a couple years. Still,  I am quite surprised that so much improvement can come from a belt change. But I have been shocked by other simpler tweaks, so maybe its legit. I'll keep you posted
artemus_5

Showing 1 response by dover

@artemus_5

Couple of issues with mylar
1. UV light degrades it over time
2. Flexing of mylar film reduces its stability.
Ultimately it stretches and becomes brittle over time.

Kapton is more stable over a longer period of time and wide range of conditions such as temperature and humidity.

There are different types of Kapton film available, with antistatic properties and conformability properties to suit the application.