Presentation

disc-'o'-ring & clamp sitting on the platter, ooups!! I forgot the record...

First of all I want to emphasise the following:

Owners of turntables with light platters (lighter than 10 Kg) and/or with soft suspension, do not waste your time reading this.

This DIY apparatus (as well as the Clearaudio one), having a weight of 1600gr, can be applied to heavy platters such as aas gabriel, Acoustic signature, Aura, Avid, Kuzma, Pluto, SPJ, Strato, Stratosphere, Symphonic Line, Teres, Verdier, VYGER etc.

Red vinyl to impress you!!

Since I tried and tested the record ring made by Clearaudio and my friend Robert Suchy, I couldn't get it off my mind.

It is really a great idea and in fact for my platter which is very heavy and also there is no bearing seat (it is magnetically suspended), it was like this idea was intended for me. I also have a lot of records and some of my beloved ones are old and not exactly flat, thing that my Souther arm is not very happy about...(arm system needs to be lowered though, due to platter-chassis clearance reduction of 1mm., when the ring is on, due to platter's weight increase).

Starts reading the groove...

Long & thin... This is better!

Easily centered as it slips down by its own weight!!

Soft pads have been placed around the inside perimeter for easy sliding down on the record!

Unfortunately, the Clearaudio ring didn't work for my platter - plain and simple geometry...

I am not that bad in designing things so, since the idea was applicable, I made my own ring, called disc-'o'-ring, according to my platter outer diameter and a lot of clever ideas have been applied to this ring - from now on you can call me a DIY person!!!

(in fact, from Clearaudio & Merril, before them, I kept only the principle which is "...ring having a thin lip that grabs approximately half of the record's lead-in groove. This lip has to be thin enough to clear the outer bottom edge of the cartridge as it plays on the lead-in groove of the record...".)

Principles of the construction are the following:

Long & thin... This is better!

Flang configuration to put your fingers undernieth and easily lift it up while turning!

First is the source material, which is not a solid (massif) piece, but a thick brass ring (difficult to find but I have my sources...)

Second is the geometry, that is the ring's inside diameter should be slightly larger than the outer diameter of the platter so that the ring can be easily centerd.

Third is the configuration and I preferred a thinner but taller ring (keeping the same more or less final weight of 1.6Kg), compared to the Clearaudio one. The logic behind this is that the center of weight is low, so you do not have problems when turning...

Forth is the material off course. Brass is a material I like acoustically, it is antimagnetic (crucial!!) and it is easily and comfortably machined...

Fifth is the ability of the owner to put it on and lift it up, without having to stop the platter (and not harm it at the same time!!). This is done by:
(a) having a conical configuration at the bottom of the ring (it doesn't show in the photograph on the right) to work as a guide and
(b) putting some soft and thin pads at the inner perimeter of the ring (8 or 16 symmetrically around the inner perimeter) so that the ring slides down very comfortably no metal to platter contact is achieved and it is automatically centerd!!
The same happens when you lift the ring up.

Sixth is the price, which for disc-'o'-ring was almost half, compared to the Clearaudio one!!!

(photographs shown, are taken before the ring is electro statically covered with chromium finish film)

Listening report

"Burn-in" is a term not applicable for disc-'o'-ring, so I will get straight to the point.

If you recall, during my listening experience of the Clearaudio ring, I commented that I got some improvement with that thing, using wrapped records. Well, with this one, I got fantastic sound improvements, even with flat records even with HQ180gr records!! It is boring folks, every time I make an improvement, I think, well, this is it..., but it seems there is always room for better and better.

I made use of the same record selection as before, but with this one, music became more natural, flow was completely grain less, images more realistic, depth and especially width more extended, voice more human and last but not least bass more tight and concentrated.

This ring, due to it's design, becomes one with the platter and not only flattens out the record but also bonds it to the platter adding perfectly centerd weight and inertia to the system as well.

Imagine a platter with a uniformly spread weight of 10 Kg. This weight as it rotates, at 33.33 RPM for example, produces a rotational inertia or rotational energy of 3.46 Kgxm²xrpm. Add to that mass the 1.6 Kg of the ring which eventually is rotating with the same RPM as the platter. Due to the fact that its weight is accumulated around the outer perimeter of the platter, although only being 16 % of the platter's mass, is producing 1.16 Kgxm²xrpm, an additional 33 % of rotational energy...

I say these because I try to explain how on earth could be such a sound difference... Try to imagine the analogue of driving a Ferrari on a country road where everything is moving and suddenly entering on a highway and energizing the turbo charge as well!!

I think I will make life a little bit more inconvenient for me (not much...) but I am going to make use of this ring on every record I put on the platter. To me, disc-'o'-ring is the best accessory money can buy!!!

System:

• Genesis 300/301 - Rowland 8T amplifier - "Consummate" line preamp (with 450W ultra fast p.su.) - DACT CT100 phono module (custom silver wired with 550W dual ultra fast p.su.) - aas gabriel turntable mod. - insider reference wood on Souther linear arm mod.
• Wiring: DARA custom silver cables (all).
• Power cables: Xaitas "black signature" (all).
• Electrical install.: 2X35A dedicated power lines + V4 & V3 power isolators.

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In case you want to order:

For your info, this is a custom order apparatus, manufactured according to your specific platter OD measurement, within 1/10mm tolerance. Estimated cost is 500 € + 60-90 € UPS mail according to destination...

Please, complete the 5 questions in this Disc-O-Ring template

Enlarge and save the picture on the right. Fill-in the required info and send them @ president@aca.gr (a close-up digital photograph of your platter might be helpful in case of 'difficult' profiles...):

1. Platter's max. OD = ???.? mm. (e.g. 304.2 mm., but MUST BE more than LP's OD = 303 mm.)
2. Available platter's thickness = ??.? mm. (thickness that is free to be covered with Disc-O-Ring, e.g. 24.8 mm.)
3. Horizontal clearance from platter = ??.? mm. (clearance that is not blocked with anything - arm-base, motor housing etc. - during rotation, e.g. 12.3 mm.)
4. Record mat's thickness = ?.? mm. (if there is none put 0, e.g. 1.9 mm.)
5. In case of larger than 1 mm. deformation at platter's top perimeter, please send profile details, or send a scetch...

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If you are a DIY person and you want to have some more ideas, visit the Teres turntable DIY project web-site. If you are specifically interested in record clamping, you may go straight to (29/Jan/00 - 31/Jan/00) & (2/Feb/00 - 9/Sep/00), e-mail digests.