Mister Pig
Pigamus Maximus
A great post big C! Love to see the dedication and hard work, and people getting recognized for their contributions. Looking forward to seeing and hearing the final product.That's one of the nicer shots I've seen. I'd love to say something illuminating but remember, my involvement is pretty limited lately as they work on getting production parts and and learn how to produce a more complex mechanical product. I do see some geometry issues that no doubt will be corrected- the cartridge is all the way out on the head shell slots and the arm is too close to the base casting, but the beauty of the design is that everything is adjustable. I was surprised they reprinted my words from so long ago (you can't imagine how long this thing has been in the works) and hopefully I don't sound like too much of an idiot, but be careful what you say or write, as it can always come back to haunt you!
I'd love to talk about the long and painful selection of a motor, but that's probably not my place. Suffice it to say there were more inexpensive off-the-shelf choices years ago than today. Today you have to go custom to get anything decent and affordable. When I started, I designed everything for very low volume production. I was shocked when Schiit decided to go out for castings, because the cost is crazy high, but that made things possible that were otherwise impractical or unaffordable. They're way more committed to Sol in terms of time and treasure than you might think.
On the subject of measurements, turntables are tough. Basically, if you can measure it, it should probably be improved until you can't. I spent many hours with accelerometers, looking at how the parts interacted and handled vibration, motor coupling and bearing noise. Naturally there were hours of listening tests and signal measurements. My test records are the same ones used back in the day, the CBS STR series and a few others. If things are done right, you often see the limitations of the records. In spite of all that, I wouldn't want to publish numbers for a prototype without testing production samples. It comes down to design choices based on how one thinks something should be done, design choices to meet cost goals and just the overall look and operation of the thing. If cost were not object many things might be done differently, but cost is an object. We'll see how well the original design translates into a production product. This is absolutely not the table for everyone, but hopefully it will please the people that get the concept.
Cheers
Mister Pig