The Funk Firm

[Capt Zach]

Hello all,

The subject of this table has been incredibly interesting to me, ever since it came out. The FF products seem to break many established rules of TT design, yet the reviews I have seen universally praise the sound coming from their turntables and their mods.

http://www.thefunkfirm.co.uk/

There are 2 areas of this design that stand out to me, in the interest of consideration for DIY:


1). The Vector Drive

For anyone who isnt familiar, the Funk Firm Vector has a subplatter, in which there are 3 pulleys driving one belt in a triangular configuration. 2 of these pulley are idler pulleys. This is supposed to center the belt around the platter, allowing it to apply equal drive forces, and avoiding strong pull on any one side of the bearing.

This isnt the first time this has been tried. VPI used a similar arrangement on its older TNT model turntable. This has since been dumped, VPI said that noise caused by these idlers added a subtle hash to the music, which improved greatly. Indeed, some owners of this table reported better sound by disconnecting these pulleys and running with just the belt. George Merril also claims that these pulleys simply add noise and dont accomplish their task. I've seen statements from other designers that an elastic belt simply doesnt have the ability to do this. So the question is, does this work, and is it worth trying?

2). The Plinth Design

I figured I would bring this up here since the FF is a good example of this type of design. While this table is very much of the "British school" of design, being generally low mass, it is also a very interesting shape. Now I know that back in the old days before CNC's were common, turntables were mostly square. And I get why some manufactureres do this for costs reasons. But does anyone actually believe that an irrgularly shaped plinth can make a huge positive contribution to the sound of a table, all things being equal?

Any ideas?

[Nanook]

completely irregular shapes are unlikely to allow standing waves to be excited within them. Also consider the fact that with no sharp corners, stress risers need not occur. Obviously, at some point all shapes are somewhat regular.

In no way am I qaulified to do stress analysis , but perhaps someone in here with that kind of experience can suggest a better explaination.

[sq225917]

but frank zappa lives forever.