Mag-Lev Turntable, too cool.

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RCHeliGuy

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I don't have the patience for vinyl, but I have to admit this is pretty cool :)

https://maglevaudio.com/

15109368_10154746882956018_7352895595502502901_n.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky0D00iyHAA
 
Cool yes, but technically quite flawed I'd imagine.

There is not even one claim for a sonic improvement on their website.

Basically they did it because it is cool looking and many will buy something just because it looks cool.

The big question is whether the cool factor will be enough for this to be a successful product. Keeping in mind that many people buy turntables because they are retro and it brings back memories or people like the ritual of caring for and playing vinyl.

I think that there are people who would buy something like this just because it looks cool, but I suspect many more people want something more "traditional".
 
Looking at the video, there is a definite up/down movement of the platter as it spins. Not good!
 
Plus there is no device to help hold the record flat which a lot of higher end players seem to have.

That's probably a good thing. Clamping the record in the centre only makes it "ping" like a guitar string. Also not good. Even if it does look all technical and precise. Got to love a bit of high end hypocrisy!!
 
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That's probably a good thing. Clamping the record in the centre only makes it "ping" like a guitar string. Also not good. Even if it does look all technical and precise. Got to love a bit of high end hypocrisy!!

This all makes me grateful that I ditched all my analog gear many moons ago including my Nakamichi tape deck and Dual Turntable. I don't miss them at all. Tape hiss, cleaning records, demagnetizing tape heads, tapes stretching out or getting eaten, static guns, etc.. etc.. It all feels like death by a thousand cuts.

Now I skip the purgatory and just play whatever I want instantly and build whatever high resolution playlists I want.
 
This all makes me grateful that I ditched all my analog gear many moons ago including my Nakamichi tape deck and Dual Turntable. I don't miss them at all. Tape hiss, cleaning records, demagnetizing tape heads, tapes stretching out or getting eaten, static guns, etc.. etc.. It all feels like death by a thousand cuts.

Now I skip the purgatory and just play whatever I want instantly and build whatever high resolution playlists I want.

Agree for the most part. I'd also add "using CDs" to the "Death by a thousand cuts" list too!

And worse than using CDs, was buying physical media. What an awful nightmare it was having to battle traffic, find a park, navigate a shopping centre; then navigate through any number of weird and vapid sorting and display models, only to find what you wanted wasn't there. In fact, if your taste extended beyond the latest Madonna or Beyonce release (of which they had at least 600 copies lining the front of the store), you were generally sh1t out of luck. And if your jazz taste extended beyond Miles Davis or Louis Armstrong it was a similar fate. So then you had to deal with the 16-year old floozy behind the counter, trying to explain to them that what wanted and knowing they had got it wrong..........then go home and do it all again.......oh, it's tiring just writing about it.

Nowadays, I punch whatever I want into my favourite Usenet search engine and it's on my server 10 minutes later ready for a jam-session.

Although...... I do have two turntables in my system and I use them occasionally, I'm damned glad I do not rely on them for a primary source.
 
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Agree for the most part. I'd also add "using CDs" to the "Death by a thousand cuts" list too!

Agreed on that too. I'm about to box up all my CD's since I ripped them all as FLAC files a little while back.

Very rarely I find that I had a badly ripped track since I ripped hundreds of disks all at once and I didn't slow the process with verification.

I haven't actually listened to a CD on my CD player in 6 months.
 
LOL .................I don't even see the 'cool' factor !
 
LOL .................I don't even see the 'cool' factor !

Me either! Just another way to pry rich folks from their money, look...I can stick my hand or another part of my male anatomy under it :p

Give me an old Thorens any day of the week, with a great arm/cart combo and Mark, you are missing something my friend. I know you have a great ear, love your digital streamed gear. I use some myself, very clean...maybe too clean. What is music?

It's a vibration, not a computer's version in 1's and 0's. I'll not knock anyone's method of enjoyment, nor say they are wrong. Most of the music from WWII till the 1990's was made with microphones to a big tape deck, this was re-mixed on to another tape or a digital DAC, which sounds better? F if I know for sure, my ears love that analog realness, my Momma didn't raise no fool, digital has gotten very close to what it needs to preserve the realness of the producer. There are just some things that anyone who understands how a plucked string, or the tone a piece of wood vibrates can enjoy when they hear it. Sometimes it takes a rock drug through a ditch to achieve bliss :cool:
 
Me either! Just another way to pry rich folks from their money, look...I can stick my hand or another part of my male anatomy under it :p

Give me an old Thorens any day of the week, with a great arm/cart combo and Mark, you are missing something my friend. I know you have a great ear, love your digital streamed gear. I use some myself, very clean...maybe too clean. What is music?

It's a vibration, not a computer's version in 1's and 0's. I'll not knock anyone's method of enjoyment, nor say they are wrong. Most of the music from WWII till the 1990's was made with microphones to a big tape deck, this was re-mixed on to another tape or a digital DAC, which sounds better? F if I know for sure, my ears love that analog realness, my Momma didn't raise no fool, digital has gotten very close to what it needs to preserve the realness of the producer. There are just some things that anyone who understands how a plucked string, or the tone a piece of wood vibrates can enjoy when they hear it. Sometimes it takes a rock drug through a ditch to achieve bliss :cool:

I don't know if I have a great ear or not, but I know what I like.

I like 12 year Macallen double cask scotch, better than their 15 and 18 year scotch. The last 15 I had seemed almost too smooth and devoid of flavor. The double cask has a nice flavor to it. For all I know I could add a few drops of maple syrup to their 15 and love it. So I understand how sometimes you can enjoy something that may not be technically as good as something else.

My setup is pretty minimalist. I have a media server that I use more as an RC Helicopter flight simulator, and I'm using an OPPO 105D as my DAC and preamp to drive my modest but powerful amplifier which is hidden from view. There is no room for a turntable or records in my listening room. I like the simplicity and how clean my current setup is.

Sadly I'm about to move my speakers to make room for a large Christmas tree (one of three we set up) and I won't have my listening area back until mid-January.

However I finally broke down and ordered a Nikon D500 that I'll be able to play with while my stereo is away and I'm building a classic 80's gaming center. Missile Command, Asteroids, etc..
 
Mark is a sweet, sensitive He-Man, intelligent enough to know that making the one closest to you happy, makes for an extremely sweet, sensitive He-Man in knuckle draggin', NASCAR lovin' North Carolina!! :)...and Mark, thanks for info on your set up and reasons, I totally understand, I'm a slave to my vinyl, all 5,000+ of them. All in boxes in my ex man-cave. I pull out a box and start spinning, read the liner notes and admire the artwork without using my cheaters :p

No offence meant of any form of member that my non PC post says.
 
I never claimed to be a He-Man.

My dad was all state football, basketball and baseball in HS. When I was a kid he played minor league basketball and scouted for local colleges. He had a clicking sound in his jaw when he ate from taking a baseball bat to head. He boxed in the navy, etc.. etc..

He and I had little in common. I was a computer geek who raced bicycles and I've never enjoyed spectator sports of any kind.

I sometimes go a week or two without turning my stereo on. It isn't a focal point in my life. It is just one of many peripheral interests.

And as far as NASCAR goes, you have to know that I put it way up there with golf and baseball for excitement. I couldn't turn the channel fast enough if I accidentally landed on any of them.
 
Here is my little nod to nostalgia. I used to love Missile Command and Asteroids Deluxe and a few others.
I finally broke down and got a system to play the classic arcade games.

I didn't get a big floor standing unit so I can put this away when I've scratched my itch and pull it back out possibly a 6 months or a year or so later.
xarcadesetup.jpg
 
Mark, I don't even know what the hell I'm looking at ?
 

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