As part of our regular ‘Ask The Industry’ column, we reach out to some of the biggest engineers in the world of hi-fi and AV to give us their invaluable insight into subjects close to their hearts.
They have dedicated years to product design, learning, researching and developing all in the name of producing the best products possible.
This month, we are talking turntables, more specifically, turntable design and what some of the best engineers in the business have learned since they started immersing themselves in the subject. Here’s what they had to say.
“Probably that every design choice shapes performance – and mastering how they work together defines a great turntable, not chasing extremes.
When you first start, it’s easy to think in terms of extremes, rigid versus suspended, heavy versus light, isolated versus coupled. In reality, every design decision shifts the behaviour of the system in different ways. Solve one problem, and you often introduce another.
What I’ve learned over time is that good turntable design is less about chasing perfection in one area and more about balancing competing factors to achieve a coherent result.
The other key lesson is that what you measure and what you hear don’t always align perfectly. Measurements are essential; they guide you, but listening is just as important, because the end goal is always the musical experience.
In the end, the best designs come from combining solid engineering principles, careful listening, and a clear idea of what you want the product to feel like, not just how it performs.”
“That the combination of many small details is what truly matters – understanding where to use which material, or which combination of materials, and applying very high precision throughout the manufacturing process.
Everything comes together at certain critical points. This is still underappreciated even today, but our understanding has grown enormously.”
“The simple answer is that I haven’t stopped learning yet, so there isn’t just one thing. The simplest change can often make the biggest sound difference. As an example, the side of the drive belt you attach to the motor and platter can affect the sound.
I think turntable design is a careful balance between form and function. The plinth itself is an acoustic instrument and should be something you enjoy playing at home.”
“The first thing I learned when I started working closely with turntables was how the tiniest difference in a component can significantly change the sound.
It could be something as small as using a different threadlocker on a screw, changing the thickness of the insulation on a cable, or using a different type of rubber for a seal.
All of them result in audible differences. Listening to various LP12s with endless combinations of components has highlighted the importance of the turntable ‘system’ and has given me a drive to understand the LP12 on a deeper level.
From a high level, a turntable may appear quite simple. But digging deeper into the details reveals that they are really, really complicated.”
“Understanding of the complexity of tonearm geometry and skating forces. Once you truly get it, you can start tonearm design.”
“When Rega started in 1973, we were aware of the important part that the turntable and amplifier contributed to sound quality and the emotional listening experience. However, the whole industry believed that only the loudspeaker was important.
It was often lectured that an amplifier was ‘a piece of wire with gain’ and therefore had no effect on sound quality. The function of a turntable was considered to be rotating the record without ‘rumble’ or ‘wow and flutter’.
The quality of a cartridge was considered its ability to ‘track’ and record at minimum playing weights, as little as one half of a gram. Indeed, some of the very few published articles on turntable design were produced by Shure and considered ‘Trackability’. This commercial pressure pushed Rega into manipulating its first turntable, the Planet, with a controversial cosmetic content, rather than trying to market sound Quality.
After a few years, Rega became more financially stable. Some retailers worldwide, along with Linn products and Naim Audio, started to market the idea of turntable and amplifier ‘sound quality’.
Although our largest distributor objected, Rega gained confidence to launch the Planar 3, based on sound quality and value. It eliminated the audible shortcomings at the Planet but was visually more basic and barring.
Rega has learned that the majority of reproduced music lovers do not care about sound quality. The music itself is enough*. However, a small percentage of listeners find music an active and immersive experience. For these people, the closer the reproduced sound is to natural sound, the more emotionally satisfying the listening experience.
These are Rega customers, and we have learned that a new model must come with improved value and sound quality. If a product costs more, it must sound better.
* For some people, a Hi-Fi system is a statue or jewellery.”
“This is a question that, unfortunately, I don’t have a tangible answer for – there is no silver bullet in any of the high-performance designed products.
You never find one element or material or one parameter that makes a complex system work in unity to achieve the desired goal.
It is always a combination of numerous aspects and parameters. Every single one of them needs to be understood and, in turn, given the correct weighting of their importance in the overall design so that the turntable can then materialise what it was designed to do. I guess this was the most important thing that I have learned!”
“Ground-borne vibrations generally have less impact on sound quality than the mechanical vibrations produced by the turntable and tonearm themselves.”
“When I started Pro-Ject in 1991, I was already 30 years old and had been a committed audiophile for 15 years.
I was most fascinated by turntables (though I also had a big love for tape decks – especially the classic Nakamichi designs), and almost everything I see on the market today in terms of playback designs and material choices already existed in some way back then. What we’re doing here is not revolutionising design – what I’ve learnt most is that we’re refining it.
Neodymium magnets, high-tech CNC machining, the wider access to carbon fibre, improved cable technologies, advanced TPE damping and the availability of more interesting and sophisticated materials are all things that have amazed me over the course of my career and have allowed me to make winning products.
This is why we must continually push to explore ways we can refine and improve the principles that already exist and are well-known.”
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