Gramovox turntable

[Botch]

http://www.gramovox.com/products/floating-record

Wonder if this would fill that reel-to-reel mechanical motion visual itch that I sorta have... :shhh:

EDIT: speakers built-in are a really dumb idea, but they can be bypassed. :snooty:

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

That is SO stupid!

 

[Randy]

That is SO stupid!

Ok, so my curiosity is getting the best of me and perhaps my lack of knowledge of turntables will clearly avail itself, but why?

I don't know why it would be good or bad either way.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

Think of a car which goes to great pains to operate on its side, with the seats rotated, the roof being the door, all four wheels on one side etc, and that's about what this is. Essentially, its pointless. They use a spring to hold the arm next to the disc, where gravity does this much better in a conventional turntable. Likewise, gravity holds the disc to the platter very well in a conventional horizontal turntable, but this thing relies on a clamp to do this (yes, I know that you can buy clamps for horizontal turntables, but that's for another reason).

Perhaps the main thing is that there is absolutely NO advantage to operating vertically, and plenty of hoops the manufacturer has to jump through to make this thing work. Its strictly for looks, and judging by the fact that they have speakers built in, its not built for really serious use. Actually, good turntables go to great lengths to isolate the turntable platter acoustically from outside feedback from speakers, floor rumble etc. This thing violates this principle by having actual speakers right next to the platter and cartridge. This is guaranteed to cause some degree of acoustic coupling to the cartridge from the speakers - a form of acoustic feedback. At the very least, this causes smearing of the sound because of the feedback from the speakers.

This turntable is a gimmick, made for people who don't know any different. There are many examples of other products which are made for people who are ignorant of what they are really buying.

 

[Botch]

IIRC, the old Dual turntables had a balanced tonearm, the stylus pressure was supplied by a spring.
My biggest beef with this design would be cleaning the disk; my Discwasher brush would push the unit backwards.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

IIRC, the old Dual turntables had a balanced tonearm, the stylus pressure was supplied by a spring.
My biggest beef with this design would be cleaning the disk; my Discwasher brush would push the unit backwards.

Several turntables used a spring for the tone arm balancing; it was called "dynamic balance". It was not reliable in the long run because of spring fatigue over time.

 

[Botch]

Glad to know that, I'd been kicking myself a long time for not buying a Dual before they went out of business.

 

[Randy]

Think of a car which goes to great pains to operate on its side, with the seats rotated, the roof being the door, all four wheels on one side etc, and that's about what this is. Essentially, its pointless. They use a spring to hold the arm next to the disc, where gravity does this much better in a conventional turntable. Likewise, gravity holds the disc to the platter very well in a conventional horizontal turntable, but this thing relies on a clamp to do this (yes, I know that you can buy clamps for horizontal turntables, but that's for another reason).

Perhaps the main thing is that there is absolutely NO advantage to operating vertically, and plenty of hoops the manufacturer has to jump through to make this thing work. Its strictly for looks, and judging by the fact that they have speakers built in, its not built for really serious use. Actually, good turntables go to great lengths to isolate the turntable platter acoustically from outside feedback from speakers, floor rumble etc. This thing violates this principle by having actual speakers right next to the platter and cartridge. This is guaranteed to cause some degree of acoustic coupling to the cartridge from the speakers - a form of acoustic feedback. At the very least, this causes smearing of the sound because of the feedback from the speakers.

This turntable is a gimmick, made for people who don't know any different. There are many examples of other products which are made for people who are ignorant of what they are really buying.

Well I knew it was a gimmick, but thank you for that excellent explanation.