Galliardist
Major Contributor
Thanks for the response, but it leaves me uncertain.Clamps/weights can flatten warped records. Warping is audible. Weights can also add inertia, and reduce wow/flutter. Not sure if that impact is audible though.
Of course, a $6000 device can't do any of those things better than a $60 device of similar weight.
Objective measurements are tricky because test tone records are rare, fragile and incredibly expensive.
Have you ever actually seen a clamp at the centre of a disc, properly flatten a warp at the rim? I spent some time looking at this, and while a warp through the middle of the disc (most common in my experience) can sometimes be reduced a little, the effect was overstated as I saw it.
As for wow/flutter, a weight at the middle of the disc reduces the flywheel effect, which should reduce inertia and increase wow.
A lot of the claims for weights and mats are made around reducing resonances in the disc, and I've yet to see real evidence for that either.
I haven't had a turntable for nearly 20 years now, so won't be researching this myself any time soon.