Colorado aerospace engineer Aleks Bakman has created a vinyl-loving-audiophile-pleasing precision turntable that benefits from virtually resonance-free operation. The utterly gorgeous One Degree of Freedom (Onedof) system features a massive sound-dampening platter that is suspended on a specially-developed self-centering bearing in a non-resonant liquid suspension, that's claimed to eliminate the kind of shift or wobble common to all cylindrical bearings. There is, however, a very high price to pay for keeping the signal free of pleasure-spoiling audio distortions - the Onedof turntable is priced at an eye-popping US$150,000.
The resonance-free liquid suspension Onedof platter bearing is said to completely eliminate any acoustic blurring or distortion caused by microscopic spindle shaft instability, and makes its first appearance in Bakman's pricey, belt-driven turntable. The engineer - who once received a special award from NASA for supporting experiments on board the Space Shuttle Columbia - states that the only degree of freedom that the bearing leaves to the 50 pound (22.6 kg) aluminum alloy platter is a steady rotation about the vertical axis.
The weighty platter assembly features six chambers that are filled with a mixture of viscous oil and solid matter to dampen platter resonance, further protecting the signal from unwanted coloring to the audio output.
A microprocessor-controlled, noise canceling brushless drive adjusts its vertical motor position on-the-fly to cancel out any possible resonances in the three o-ring drive belts. Using similar technology to that seen in noise-canceling headphones, if the microprocessor detects any distortion from the mechanical system, it generates a counterphase signal to block out unwelcome sonic impurities. The drive is also said to be extraordinary precise - with velocity error reported to be less than 0.00001 percent of velocity value per revolution.
The tonearm tower will work with any tonearm/cartridge combination and provides continuous, smooth vertical tracking angle adjustment over three inches, and can support up to three tonearms.
Even though audiophiles are accustomed to parting with vast quantities of cash in the pursuit of the Holy Grail of pure audio, stumping up the $150,000 asking price for the Onedof turntable may well prove be a quest for only the most dedicated purists.
Source: Dvice
But my shitbox CD / MP3 player only costs $45 and it can take 32Gig USB sticks containing some 2000 + hours of lectures, podcasts etc., and not once do I have to ever get up and change anything.
I just play my 6 hours a day, every day for 340 days and hit pause when I want a break.
So the stupid person who buys THAT - I am about $149,965 in pocket, more than you and because my shitbox CD MP3 player comes with it\'s own amplifier and speakers - I don\'t have to spend even more to get them as well.
There are laser record players that would perform better than this. There are also lossless audio codecs like FLAC that encode source audio at exceptionally high quality and completely eliminate the need for records altogether.
I suppose if you\'re the kind of ass that likes to spend money just to show off that you have money, then this would be perfect. Let everyone know how much money you can waste on silly products like this.
Although, There\'s one issue with this turntable. The micro controlled electronics create an emf that causes grunge and harshness in the sound. Most can\'t hear it but many audiophiles can.
And if this is their first table they have a long way to go to get it right.
You are closer than others to appreciation of my effort. The sound of Onedof really is rewarding for the people like you, who can hear more detail. However the musical content, that is the music itself, is much more important. Listening to the entire opera for 3-4 hours gives you the feeling of being involved with the live music 50 years after it was recorded. You have to be prepared to do that. Just playing music while you are working, or working out, or eating or doing anything else is not the same as the actual listening.
Dear Siddharth Mehta
You got it right. Back EMF is a huge control issue. I think that I had solved it, based on my instrumentation. The motor is really quiet and, most importantly, the sound is good.
Dear Stradric
I have explained here (http://www.onedof.com/sites/onedof.com/files/images/Slide1.JPG) how the lift is developing in the conventional cylindrical bearing. The same way the air, acting as a lubricant, separates the needle from the groove. The prove of this statement is the fact, that after I had played the same side of the vinyl record for hours and hours and no black vinyl dust had been generated. Of course the shape of the tip needle and the normal (tracking) force should be right. Vinyl records pressed in the 1930s still sound like new, but the CDs start skipping in 10 years even without being in any use. There are no lossless digital recordings. All digital data has jitter, that causes loss of information and introduces digital distortions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitter. Oversampling and other correction measures do not eliminate the issue.
Dear Folks,
the Onedof turntable is expensive because it is expensive to make. The cars used to be not affordable before the production line with invented by Ford. What you compare my turntable to, are the production items, designed without real innovations, without real engineering, with mostly the cost reduction in mind. I have solved an engineering problem which I define like this: design and build a vinyl disk turntable, which rotates most steadily, does not shift, and does not wobble. In other words: one degree of freedom turntable: only the steady rotation. I had solved this problem the best I could. At least give me a benefit of a doubt before you actually listened to the music, played on my turntable.