TIGER PAW "Tranquility" (Magnetic Bearing Repulsion...) Any Good?

Isolate it. Problem solved!

In the case of Tiger Paw the platter is not suspended magnetically. The load on the bearing is reduced, however, magnetically.

from the Tiger Paw website,

“Magnetic levitation has been used before, and is currently used, by a small number of exotic turntable manufacturers; however our application does not actually raise the spindle from it’s contact with the thrust pad but it does dramatically reduce the force and friction between the two surfaces. We basically reduce this by around 90%.

Tranquility has taken a considerable amount of time to develop and draws upon a broad range of specialist experience in turntable component development, and utilizes a unique array of high quality rare earth magnets in a specific arrangement to ensure that the fields are perfectly aligned in order to deliver precisely the amount of force required. In particular we’d like to thank Mark Holterman for his contribution and collaboration along with his original work with magnetic systems.”

The slippage issue arises with *opposing magnets* such as mag lev devices. Thecslippage occurs due to magnetic field forces in the horizontal plane. There are obviously also magnetic forces in the vertical direction. Since some turntables such as Verdier employ mag lev one assumes slippage can be overcome. But generally, slippage for mag lev is controlled by having “stops” in place so slippage won’t result in the top plate slipping too far. One also assumes in the case of a platter suspended by mag lev slippage will occur on start up but won’t occur after the platter reaches speed due to friction. But I’m guessing a little bit at that last point.