As far as I can see with a little care an inverted bearing does no harm. One designer seems to say unless one finds the exact centre of mass the better performance is missed. To my way of thinking the bearing point above the mass centre looks better. 1 mm will do.
One advantage of inverting I see is that the centering of the bearing can be done by just one bearing bush. That is a cost advantage. Not the bush, the speed of accurate location. The Avid turntables seem to be made this way. They even seem to use bog standard phosphor bronze bushes as did ERA. These are often are the better sollution and very low cost whilst being extremely well tollerenced. They are pressed in a die and hold oil, the die is correct or it isn't.
The ERA mk6 had a very fast detailed sound with very good image stabiliy. Taken apart it seemed completely wrong in build type and quality. Mild steel box on foam blocks ( called silent bloc suspension ). Thin wood board for looks and simple arm fitting ( It possibly saved the sound from being that of a biscuit tin ). On off switch that went clunk. I would say the ERA was better than the LP12 of the time and did what Pink set out to do. I would prefer a Lenco 75, but that's just me. The ERA platter was beautifually made, not very heavy in what I assume was zinc alloy.
For fun my boss dropped in on the ERA company ( Rue De Pelleport Paris I think, 1980?? ). They had given up Hi Fi to make Tanks for the government. My boss was pretty good in French and was a military engineer in 1945 building bridges so could talk the talk. I got this phone call , did we want to pay £20 000 for the rights? No we didn't. The importer was Tony De Banks who by pure chance I bought a car from in 1996. He had 6 Mk6 to give me. I never went back! They all had the ERA arm that at the time no one wanted ( looks like it could work ). His name made it obvious it was him.
Although using audio memory the ERA is the same style as the Platine Verdier. Having heard cutting lathes for playback ( SME 12", said to be comming back ) the Verdier is more restrained. What I really like about the ERA is how it doesn't kill micro detail. It's all a long time ago, all tha same I trust my audio memory. I would imagine a SME M2 would suit it well. I wouldn't be shocked if it was a musicians preference. Beatles music would show it off well as would any of the A&M recordings like Joan Biaz Diamonds and Rust.
One advantage of inverting I see is that the centering of the bearing can be done by just one bearing bush. That is a cost advantage. Not the bush, the speed of accurate location. The Avid turntables seem to be made this way. They even seem to use bog standard phosphor bronze bushes as did ERA. These are often are the better sollution and very low cost whilst being extremely well tollerenced. They are pressed in a die and hold oil, the die is correct or it isn't.
The ERA mk6 had a very fast detailed sound with very good image stabiliy. Taken apart it seemed completely wrong in build type and quality. Mild steel box on foam blocks ( called silent bloc suspension ). Thin wood board for looks and simple arm fitting ( It possibly saved the sound from being that of a biscuit tin ). On off switch that went clunk. I would say the ERA was better than the LP12 of the time and did what Pink set out to do. I would prefer a Lenco 75, but that's just me. The ERA platter was beautifually made, not very heavy in what I assume was zinc alloy.
For fun my boss dropped in on the ERA company ( Rue De Pelleport Paris I think, 1980?? ). They had given up Hi Fi to make Tanks for the government. My boss was pretty good in French and was a military engineer in 1945 building bridges so could talk the talk. I got this phone call , did we want to pay £20 000 for the rights? No we didn't. The importer was Tony De Banks who by pure chance I bought a car from in 1996. He had 6 Mk6 to give me. I never went back! They all had the ERA arm that at the time no one wanted ( looks like it could work ). His name made it obvious it was him.
Although using audio memory the ERA is the same style as the Platine Verdier. Having heard cutting lathes for playback ( SME 12", said to be comming back ) the Verdier is more restrained. What I really like about the ERA is how it doesn't kill micro detail. It's all a long time ago, all tha same I trust my audio memory. I would imagine a SME M2 would suit it well. I wouldn't be shocked if it was a musicians preference. Beatles music would show it off well as would any of the A&M recordings like Joan Biaz Diamonds and Rust.