mag-lev-turntable

** OK, my two cents worth:

The specs say the power consumption is only 12 watts - so static lift must be achieved with permanent magnets.

There are no claims made for W&F so it must be poor, mostly due to imperfect centring of the LP. There are no claims that it is a genuine, hi-fi turntable.

The platter wobbles and bounces for ages when disturbed, hence the use of support pegs when not running.

The lack of important details and the OTT marketing videos makes it all smell very badly of SCAM.

.... Phil

Good point. Even if they can raise it that high, it seems it would both conserve assets and increase reliability to just lift it a quarter inch. Wouldn't that give all the alleged advantages and no added disadvantages? So that makes it look like a fraud.

Parts of the video looked to me someone like it was an animation.

....

I only gave my cities because I sent copies of the first post to some friends, but I keep using different email addresses in different places and one said he couldn't tell if it was from me or someone he didn't know.

Fit better in tiny Japanese apartments.

Isaac

** I had the same feeling, close-ups of the patter and PU looked like CGI.

The Mag-Lev company is based in Slovenia - so likely immune from consumer fraud litigation and operating only over the net is such a warning.

If it is somehow for real, the dudes have gone to considerable trouble to make it look FAKE.

.... Phil

I'm still trying to get past the vertical CD holder on some computers.

My brother had a friend who told him about a "good investment". that sounded like a really high-tech company. But its webpage was small, only with animations and no photos, and their list of clients was almost all prospects who hadn't signed yet.

I actually got their company address and looked at the satellite pictures. The office was small in a little strip mall, and the work location only had room for 3 trucks. But still, perhaps it was a business that could grow a lot, if they could raise capital, but after a lot of reading, it seemed all they do is dispose of the waste water from carwashes. Sure there's a market for that, becuase of laws against runoff, but it's not so hightech and there must be plenty competition.

My brother's friend had actually driven a couple hundred miles to look at the plant and he invested. I wonder if he saw in person more than I could see on the computer, or if they just took him some place and showed him something that wasn't even theirs. At the time I posted on another ng and someone knew of just such a scam. IIRC they went on weekends when the real employees were not there, put up a sign before the mark arrived and and took it down as soon as he left.

A year later, I didn't get a new list of clients but the webpage was the very same. It's too touchy a subject to ask the friend how he made out with his investment.

Good point.

Oh yeah. So it should be on the market soon. :-)

From the kickstarter page:

Accidents happen, and we know that sometimes you may encounter a power

stores enough power to safely lift the tonearm, stop the record, and return the platter feet to resting position. This way the turntable and your record remain in perfect condition even when the unexpected happens.

I've got a 45 I must have left in the sun, and it has waves literally an inch and a half high, circling around the center. The needle can't come within an inch of the troughs.

I call it a rock and roll record.

And maybe a levitated easy chair and ottoman!

I still own and use one, a Mitsubishi LT-5V.

The main advantage to it, it's practically immune to rumble via outside sources. Within reason, stick it on a wobbly table with a loose floor, jump up and down while it's playing and, nothing.

It's not the greatest turntable ever built for other things (besides looks) but it is good at that one thing. Up and down vibrations just don't bother it.

-bruce snipped-for-privacy@ripco.com

I googled that and saw a Technics one, too. They both say they are "linear tracking", so I guess it must be a bit like a CD/DVD mechanism.

Mike.

This entire discussion is fascinating!

I think that the concept is accepted in general. There is nothing particula rly difficult with suspending one object over another using magnets. This h as been done for years. Today, there are extremely powerful and stable magn ets that make the process more easily achieved.

There is nothing particularly difficult with shielding the cartridge from t he magnets. As Phil noted, with a 12W power consumption, and stable PM fiel ds, there is not a lot of stray magnetic fields happening here.

So, what we are left with is the R&D & ergonomics required to go from proto type to production. As to scam, very possibly. But not certainly. Keeping in mind that the production of turntables these days outside of USB-based j unkers is pretty much a cottage industry from small companies or tiny divis ions of larger ones producing legacy devices. So, that a half-dozen Serbian s might come up with a wild idea is actually somewhat touching. It is not a s if Harmon-Kardon is going to buy out Jacob Rabinow, or Revox is going to turn a dozen Swiss machinist loose on the problem. This is where it will be happening.

Again, I am hooked on linear TTs. Were this device to offer that option, I would be tempted. In another forum, a gentleman is discussing upgrading his TT and throwing around 5-figure numbers (US$). So, clearly, this TT is in the sparrow-feed range for that sort of individual. And, look at the cost o f a Souther arm these days.

Will it work? Too early to tell. It depends on the skills of those executin g the concept. Can it work? Clearly, yes. Hand this to the Swiss, or a couple of really go od machinists and give them unlimited resources, it would be done in a mont h. Would US$700,000 do it? Certainly not in Switzerland. At the Machine shop I worked in 40 years ago - absolutely. It is still extant by the way, and st ill very successful. Far from the dingy little building I worked in back th en, today it looks like a clean room, only about two acres under roof.

By amateurs in Serbia? Who knows.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

There is

You possibly mean this one.

The Gramovox Vertical Turntable - REVIEW

It's mad.

--
Adrian C

I see one sold on ebay last year for 450.

No wonder they *all* had Slovenic (?) names.

Good point. Okay, that's 50,000 dollars I can use for something else.

** You can find vids on the net from independent people - showing a Mag-Lev TT working. It really does float 50mm above the base and it really does spin at a pretty steady pace.

There is some serious cleverness going on here.

.... Phil