Thread: Turntables with Romovable Spindles

Does anyone make a decent, semi-affordable turntable with a removable spindle, say, in the under-$1,000 range?

Vertere perhaps.

Originally Posted by Mikado463

OK I'll ask, why do you want a removable spindle ?

For off-center pressings.

Originally Posted by Myles B. Astor

Used Roksan.

exactly. with an Artemis arm (as opposed to the Tabriz).

Originally Posted by Bongo Beater

For off-center pressings.

This will sound crass (so be it), but you're not going to find a NEW 'table/arm around 1k with a removable spindle that will make any difference with off-center records. You're trying to mitigate one problem by creating others at your price threshold. If off-center records are such a problem for you, get a setup with a linear tracking arm. I've owned many of those, they all have upsides as well as downsides.

At $1000 second-hand is probably the best option. Perhaps a Roksan Xerxes? Roksan and Vertere motivate removable spindles on sound quality grounds, the point being that the transfer of bearing noise to the vinyl is reduced when the spindle is not in contact with the record. It does also increase the ability to centre off-centre records. There is a new DS Audio product designed to enable this and in their marketing material they show a pretty convincing measurement of the positive effects of proper centering.

I find it difficult to believe a linear tracking arm would solve the problem - it seems to that off-centre records would be an even bigger problem for them.

Hans

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

Is that a problem to warrant another table specifically for that? If I ever had an LP that was off center it played and I wasn't aware of the issue.

So how do you check to see if the hole is centered and once the spindle removed how do you make sure the LP is exactly positioned on the platter?

Well, I have about 6,000 LPs, so I could answer "yes" based on that alone, but I am in the market for a new turntable anyway.

As far as aligning the records, there is some trial and error involved, although the label designs provide visual cues as to where the wavering occurs. I have a method of marking the labels in such a way that I can line them up again the next time. (I do this with off-center 45s.). My Dad's Garrard turntable had a removable spindle, and it was very helpful for spinning off-center LPs.

Originally Posted by Mikado463

6,000 Lp's, cull out the out-of-round culprits and call it a day ! You could probably listen to the remaining good ones in your collection and be dead before you got to the end !

I can't even begin to tell you how many albums I have that I've been lucky to stumble across only once and never find another copy of again. And this from someone who was routinely scarfing up LPs in the 1990s, when they were everywhere for short dough and no one wanted them. If that one copy of a rare record is off center, c'est la vie. You can't find LPs like Frank Hunter's White Goddess or John McFarland's Provocatif for 50 cents anymore.