Buyer's Guide - Buying a Turntable Clamp and Stabiliser or Weight

Does the gravity one work for 7" records? If not, which stabilizers do? Thanks

Are weights ok for a technics 1200?

Fantastic thanks just wanting your advice on cleaning vinyl I was looking at buying mini pro ject vinyl cleaner what’s your view on these

Love your videos. I'm binge watching them now. I have a Denon DP300F belt drive table that advises against using clamps and weights on that table. Could cause damage to belt or motor. I have to admit, for any belt driven table I would avoid using them. For direct drive? Absolutely a go!

It's more simple to me: If you buy a record and it's warped, you return it. If buying a turntable you need a weight or clamp because if you don't the turntable will not work, you buy a different turntable.

I've used Clearaudio's Cleverclamp with excellent damping on Rega tables due to its feather light weight yet solid frictional grip on the spindle. And it's inexpensive at $40 US.

Gravity one sounds very interesting

I tried to flatten a record between two slates of granite on my stove. it came out more warped than it was.

Hi, I have a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon with an acrylic platter (I don’t use a slip mat at the moment). I was considering the Origin Live Gravity One and the Yellow Bird Hex Mat to get better sound. Which of the two you think would give a better result in terms of sound quality? Thanks!

what are the differances between Clamp and Stabiliser or Weight and what does each 1 do?

I mostly agree. I tried for the last few years to use a center clamp & periphery ring weight that added so much weight it stretched the belt. I’m down to just using the center twister clamp. Lesson is if your record is warped so badly that it makes you feel uneasy and going to challenge your stylus and tonearm tracking its best to just not play it and hunt down a better copy. I do see much benefit to using center clap that you screw down.

Oh wow I better go buy myself a Shun Mook now

Buy a record flatenner

Collet, not grommet

Paul,
Have been watching your great videos for some time now & your name & manerism reminds me of an old college classmate. Did you ever spend time at Ealing in the middle 80's?

Certain pressings it helps with the detail and focus but most of the time it just neuters the bass in my experience

You said about the Avid Acutus's clamp .. "your records won't sit on the platter until you've fitted this clamp to the turntable..." & "The
turntable won't perform properly unless this.. (clamp) ..is on top of the spindle"
But that got me instantly thinking: With records holes & spindles being an industry standard size** & records being (hopefully) flat & turntable platters also flat to support records equally & over their entire surface
(**although a very few cheaper t/table's spindles have been known to have been made very slightly smaller in diameter to avoid customers freaking out about their L.P.s being quite a tight fit, only at first few plays, tho an inserted pencil's sharp end being given at first, a very light pressure twist will sort that problem if done carefully & very lightly to avoid loosing platter to rdcord dual concentricity) ...& i presume the plater of the Avid is also flat, i really dont get why those 2 statements are true. If the Avid's platter mat is hairy fibred, so as to need squashing flat (my pathetic but only guess as to why the t/table wont work without it's (amazingly designed) clamp, or If it's platter is very slightly concave to leave a gap without the clamp pushing it to fit the concave shape , i would understand it but surely it's not ...err, is it?? I wouldnt want my L.P.s clamped to a concave shape, esp' those that i only like one side of & quite a few i mostly play 1 certain side of, especially amongst the clasical section where there often is a different composer's work on each side that includes one i don't care for, there are quite a few in my 2k'ish L.P. collection that i can instantly think of. Honestly, I'm not just nit picking but the ressons behind this Avid's clamp vital cruciality to even play a clampless record does genuinely confuse me.

So if I put a Gravity- One on my Fluance RT-85, I’ll be able to hear more than a subtle difference?

Metal weights increase the static electricity on the record by 10 fold. There’s also absolutely zero difference in sound when using a weight vs not using one. Waste of money.

Great review, some years ago I had a Michell clamp which you showed but it didn't work for me, I tried all manner of combinations with pressure and tightness but it just wouldn't work properly, it always muffled the music, I then bought a weight of 400 grams, this improved things quite a bit, getting a weight of that weight was a bit tricky, they were either 150 to 200 grams or 600 to 800 grams and more in some cases, those were eye wateringly highly priced too and often made from stone, this 400 gram weight I used for some time, I am now saving for a Origin Live Sovereign SE, I have a OL Enterprise Tonearm for it already and I have the Gravity One also, such a clever gadget (I honestly don't know what to call it to be honest) of course I have the platter mat and Enabler too, such small and inexpensive items that make quite a difference, I have a Resolution mk2 at the moment but within 6 months I hope to have the Sovereign SE.
Origin Live and Graham Slee really rekindled my jaded view of HIFI, I've always had vinyl and never got rid of any when it went out of fashion, but I lost a lot of faith in the HIFI industry as so much of it never lived up to the hype "not even closely".
Keep up the good work and thank you for being a voice of reason.

I have the Gravity One and I’m very happy…

Dear Paul , sometimes we love our bent used or new records so much , we don't want to return them 😉

i see a pro-ject clamp IT at the start, but it never got a mention. any opinions on its worth guys?

Just use an inexpensive hokey puck. That is what I use.

A postal spending for a guy from discogs (and for me of course) is about a price of a not expensive release. So, someone needs to pay about the same price for nothing. How many people will agree on this? A ticket to a city with a big vintage store is a little bit more expensive. Thus I skipped 7 minutes of this video -)
A 160-230g clamp on top of 2kg platter makes nothing to a spindle. I skipped yet more 3 minutes.
I don't think vinyl sound engineers consider disk vibrations. All they wanted to say was in grooves. Everything else is related to your cartridge and loudspeakers. There cannot be "too much dumping". Cause there is no too much of sound pureness. I skipped tailing 10 minutes. Cheers

So how many times do you have to exchange it to get a flat one?

Shut the hell up. Some of us aren’t privileged to refuse warped records

Paul, you have one of my favorite albums of all time behind your left shoulder. looks like you have a good jacket on it. Good advise.

I don’t believe that in 5000 records there isn’t a single one with a slight warp.

I would like to know whether a lighter clamp is easier on the bearing as opposed to a heavy stabilizer,which is just a weight. Which of these two would make the reckords sound better?

I can take my chances. Better than opened records lying in second hand stores... some of them are in hands of 100s people or more. And most do not take care of records. Scratches are not dust that can be removed.

Snilingur..

Help me understand. To me it seems that adding weight on the platter would slow the spinning platter down so it would no longer be 33rpm (would be 32.9 or something)

I got 1 . Its a Stand in from Goodwill. Waiting on a New Find. .

Hi, would you recommend the use of a stabilizer on a direct drive turntable? Tks

I agree with you but there’s different atmospheric s plus moving from one house to another this all takes it toll on vinyl, plus I have vinyl that’s not available no more.

I found on my technics 1200 mk2 using the Michelle clamp took all the air and and sparkle out of the top end. My records sound dull and lifeless with this clamp. Looking for an alternative

Hi I have a rega p3 turntable with a Hana el a project s2 preamp Maggie’s lrs with a sub and a Hegel 360, my question is which is better a origin live gravity one or a hexmat? Thx for your advice Nick in Troy, Michigan

great video...bravo!

how does the x2 compare to the x2b and the P6?

They are alle to flat in my big hands, I almost fumbled on into my cartridge, any recommendation for higher builds? To be honest I testet in various price ranges and never heard a difference…

Great video, came here to find the optimal weight of stabilizers in general but learnt a lot more. One question though that I still have is to make the first choice between a 400ish GM weight ( most of stabilizers are in this weight range) vs a heavy one from Fluance (~700 GM). One I understood from the video is using a very heavy one may overdampen the dynamics but what should be the considerations from the mechanical stress on turntable motor and bearings from this perspective. Thanks!!!

i have collected records and used hifi for over 50 years - any dished or warped records should not be used, there are services available that can straighten mild warps. Record clamps are designed to make up for shortcomings in cheap or damaged turntables, if you think you need a clamp get the turntable repaired or buy a better one. Clamps suck the life out of a good turntable.

i'm not turning away a record that costs $1.00 just because its warped, the cheap weight works good for that. btw i'm poor and all my equipment and records are used(goodwill). so when i see a record I want to hear, i get it as long as its not scratched badly. but the rich can be snobs

Thank you very much Paul. This is a very interesting and informative review (as always). Brilliant ! Very best wishes. 🙂 🙂 🙂

How can they warrant the higher priced products?...blooming heck they aren't reentering the earth's atmosphere...bloody bonkers.

Nice to see the orb on your collection.

Warps, in my experience, are at the outer edge of a record. How does a weight in the center, furthest from the warped edge, help remedy that? Weights seem to reduce resonance.

Will the Michell clamp R version work on an Rega planar P2 ?

Yes yes I have those record stabilizee. But the issue is when you have those it makee the bass deeper and thicker henced it can drown out the dynamics and airiness..

I tried it on 2 high end turntable. One is the Michelle SE and the other is the Acoustix signature Storm with 3 motors again a very big mistake cause when I had 1 motor not humming motor noise but yes it sounds a little better more consistent sounding. But the humming is very unbearable.