Meitner AT-2

[faxurda]

I got the chance to buy a Meitner AT-2 turntable ( http://home.c2i.net/jantoresvart/turntables/at-2.jpg )for 300 $ cnd (220 $ us) This turntable is on pretty good condition and come with a MC cartridge (sorry I don't have the brand name).

Any comments about this turntable. Do I make a good buy at this price?

Thanks,

Faxurda

[Brett]

Looks pretty, but an unsupported LP is just asking for feedback, and every TT I've ever heard with low LP surface contact has sounded dire. I would only buy it as an amusement or industrial sculpture, and for that sort of money you should be able to turn up something good sounding like an old Thorens.

[Raka]

Yes, try a thorens, you can do better, but I'm sure you can do much worse
Price will be more or less the same, but have to be careful about the condition of the tt you buy.

[Nat Eddy]

I wonder if the comments above are based on experience. I have not heard the table, though I have seen it, but I remember it getting some positive reviews when it came out, and Ed Meitner has made some well regarded equipment. I am not sure I buy his interpretation of what is happening with vibrations within the record, and coupling to the air, but given that the price for table, arm and cartridge is pretty affordable, I would certainly give it a listen. There are plenty of pieces of equipment that sound better than expected, and this might be a sleeper. And it certainly is a conversation piece!

[faxurda]

Thanks Eddy,

IT's that kind of information I need. I heared the unit and I found it's play verry verry well. I will buy it soon and I will give you my review.

And what is fun I know the history of the turntable.

Thanks again.

[Brett]

Originally posted by Nat Eddy
I wonder if the comments above are based on experience.

Actually yes. Not of this particular TT, but a few Transcriptors (which similarly use an almost completely unsupported LP surface) and they howled like coyotes, and even when not feeding back sounded, at best, average. Put a solid platter on top of the 'points' and it sounds a whole lot better. Have you actually hear one (Meitner) or smething similar?

In my collection of LP's, I also have many made from really thin and floppy vinyl that will noticably deflect under 2g at the edge. Yet on a normal platter they sound fine.

but given that the price for table, arm and cartridge is pretty affordable, I would certainly give it a listen.

But for the same money you can get something guaranteed to be good. Faxurda should listen before he buys, but buying blind would be a very risky proposition for a sole TT.

There are plenty of pieces of equipment that sound better than expected, and this might be a sleeper.

And there are many more that sound like crap.

[faxurda]

Thanks Eddy,

IT's that kind of information I need. I heared the unit and I found it's play verry verry well. I will buy it soon and I will give you my review.

And what is fun I know the history of the turntable.

Thanks again.

[Nat Eddy]

I think that the comparison of the Meitner with the Transcriptor may be misleading. The Transcriptors just rested the record on five or six points, so that (unless by unlikely chance it was resting on specifc points that would damp out vibration) it was free to vibrate like mad. The Meitner, though clamps the record at the center, and may very well put it under tension by deflecting the center portion up or down. This, it seems to me, would make the record quite possibly rather resistant to vibration. And if I recall correctly, Meither made a point of noting that the standard method of supporting records really only works if the record is perfectly flat and in intimate contact with the platter mat. If, as is the case in the real world, the record is somewhat warped, essentially it is resting on a few points, and free to vibrate -- rather like it would be on a Transcriptors (horrors!).
Of course it is possible to get around this by using a sticky or very soft mat (which have effects on the sound, not always good) or by applying tension to the record to force it into contact with the mat -- which is probably a good idea, but not many turntables below the top of the high end actually use the method (and the Thorens suggested as an alternative certainly do not). (And even these tables don't reliably clamp out warps on the edge -- only that Kenwood with the metal edge clamping ring would do that.) Or you can use a vacuum hold down, with its own problems -- the pumps are often audible, and some people worry about forcing bits of dust and dirt into the vinyl on the clamped side. (But again, this isn't in the cards at this price level.)
So Meitner may have a point that it might be just as well to aim at quick uniform reflection of vibrations and high damping by having the record unsupported and damped by air. He suggested trying this by cutting out the center label section of a record or two, and putting them on your regular platter to support a record at its center, and trying out his theory. This , unlike just removing the outer platter, doesn't change the moment of inertia, nor does it foul up the suspension. Obviously it does change proper tonearm height.
I am not rehearsing this argument because I think that its neccessarily right, but because I think that the standard view has real world weaknesses that are not always addressed. And I think that for the price, this table may possibly be a better value than could be achieved going the standard Thorens/Rega etc route. For $220 US you simply aren't going to get everything, and the Meitner may be better than the alternatives.