MEITNER AT-2
PLATTERLESS TURNTABLE
For decades, the phonograph record has proven itself an amazing source of musical
satisfaction and diversity of selection. As our understanding of turntables, tonearms
and phono cartridges has advanced, so have the results achieved from those same
recordings that we thought we had heard at their best.
The history of the record has been one of discovery; of musical satisfaction that
increases with each new development in playback technology.
Even today we cannot be certain that we have unlocked all the treasures stored
in the record groove.
The AT-2 Record Playing System features "platterless playback". The
platter is replaced by a metal flywheel with knife-edge machinings to support
the record beneath the label area. The playing surface of the record couples to
air on top and bottom.
Turntable designers have made enhancements to platters and mats through the years.
As far as they have evolved, however, platters and mats are left with one fundamental
problem. The point at which the record contacts the mat or platter is an energy
interface that vibrations, traveling at high velocities, must traverse. These
vibrations will not be completely absorbed by the interfacing surface, and a significant
portion of the energy will be "mirrored" back into the record. Because
most of the energy is generated by the cartridge stylus, this is the area to receive
most of the reflected energy. The result is a form of distortion read by the stylus
and incorporated into the music signal.
Overlooked by most, the twelve inch diameter of the typical record makes it an
increasingly ideal half-wave coupler of acoustic energy from the lower mid-range
up, and improving as the frequency rises. The record naturally dissipates vibrations,
particularly at the levels and frequencies that they occur, to air. Thus air becomes
the absorbent "platter", the only substance that does not give energy
back to the record. The reproduction of music is open, dynamic, remarkably natural.
The AT-2 has become a collector's item.
For more information
please contact John Wright at (403) 968-1400 or email john@museatex.com