About Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan is the co-founder of PS Audio (The 'P' ) and has been designing, building and enjoying high end audio since 1974. He lives in Boulder Colorado with his wife Terri and his four sons: Lon, Sean, Scott and Rob. His hobbies include hiking, skiing, cooking, artisan bread baking. His current big project, other than playing with stereos, is writing a book series called the Carbon Chronicles. Book One, the Lost Chronicle, is a work in progress. You can view his efforts at http://www.paulmcgowan.com
The guiding rule of audio: The costlier a piece is, the less helpful features it will have. No dust cover…no tone controls…
We’re conditioned like the Pavlov’s dog.
I keep a record sleeve draped over the TT to keep dust off when not in use.
I found a 10k pre without a remote – very tempting but decided I couldn’t face life without one – convenience is part of perfection at times.
A turntable table cover I feel is essential. Now I agree with the other gentleman that you don’t leave your turntable cover on when playing records, but when you’re done, and you’re done more than you typically play, I like put in a cover over my turntable.
Paul mentions in great detail that dust in the grooves is the so-called “enemy”, and while that is very true, dust settles on the platter and then it transfers to your record. You flip it over and side two is much dirtier than the side one was.
That’s my two cents on covers.
Some 30 years ago all Dual, Elac, Thorens, Revox, B&O, Philips, etc turntables had removable dust covers. They reduced the potential dust-contamination during play. However then somebody found out that the dust covers fixed to the plinth increased the impact of air borne (sound waves emitted by the speakers) vibrations. Thus it became mandatory for perfect vinyl replay to put the turntable out of the listening room! For less engaged vinyl lovers there were user friendly turntable designs as Technics SL-7 having the linear tracking tonearm integrated in the “dust cover”! Even more comfortable; the laser turntable LT from ELP Corp., Japan!
I have a very early VPI HW-19 table(updated some over the years) which was a high end table when I bought it. It came with a dust cover with hinges. But the cover was easily slipped off for playing LPs.
My reason for having removable dust covers is that I don’t want to hose my cartridge dusting the table. And dust can gum up the back end of the tonearm assembly over time. I have two turntables that I had covers custom made form of lightweight acrylic for about $100 each.
I AM wondering why PSA doesn’t replace the cover on the display disc player. Seeing Paul drop his notes into a live electrical appliance made my backend pucker.
Unseen dust on the platter can easily contaminate the unplayed (under) side of a record in use. One solution is to remove a platter “cover” before playing a record. When you finalize a listening session, put the cover back on the platter. Simple, easy, effective.
This was a very timely video posting as I recently bought one of Yamaha’s new high-end series GT-5000 turntables and was “surprised” to find that it did not come with a dust cover. I’ve certainly owned my fair share of turntables over my 61 years – from the mid-range to relatively high-end – and mostly, if not exclusively, from Japanese manufacturers. But I have always expected them to be accompanied by a dust cover.
Yamaha does make a dust cover available, but at a very high asking price of about $800-900 US. And, it is not available through their US channels. I was able to source one through Yamaha in Australia, but that’s neither here no there.
Yamaha’s explanation for not providing a dust cover as a standard accessory is that some audiophiles prefer not to have a dust cover because it can introduce unwanted vibration or noise when resting on the plinth. I frankly think it’s their way of getting an extra $1000 out of me (which they did).
So, Paul, are you buying that explanation? Regardless, and perhaps because I have just become accustomed to the look of my turntables with dust covers on them over the years, I love my $1000 dust cover and how it looks on my Yamaha GT-5000 🙂
My Sota Sapphire has a hinged dustcover which fits snug and I’m glad it does. I notice that despite the cover a fine dust layer eventually accumulates on the top side. I can’t imagine how bad it would be with no cover at all. As for sound, I always play records with the dust cover down. A few times I tried it with the cover up and I could detect no difference.
Furthermore on the Sota, the dustcover is hinged to the plinth not the suspended platter and tonearm assembly. I don’t see why playing a record with the cover either up or down would have any significant effect on the playback.
The cover on TT ruin the sound, back in the day we have a turntable covered and while playing took the cover off, you could hear the sound just open up, clearer, you don’t want sound vibes bouncing around inside of a TT, the needle picking that up, one designer said the TT picks up some of your room sounds, which adds to what we hear to the final sound which he said make vinyl have its own colorations as all TT do.
A dust cover can also protect the turntable and tonearm from accidents. My teenagers like to bounce, spin, toss, all kinds of things around the house. And some guests are clumsy and clueless (and sometimes tipsy). And some of us have dogs that shed hair everywhere. So for many reasons, I’d love to see covers provided. And I prefer a removable sit-on-top cover versus hinged.
I was thinking the same thing, just as there are grill covers for speaker’s to protect against accidents.
The VPI website home page has what appears as your turntable shown with a dustcover. Interesting.
I have a basis turntable. Naturally, no dust cover. I bought an aftermarket museum grade plastic cover that covers the entire turntable. Take away the dustcover to play the turntable. No vibration, no nothing. Dust is attracted to records by static electricity. Any dust on the mat will adhere to that side of the record. So flip the record to play side 2 and it is full of dust in the grooves. Needs destatic, and light washing. But removable dust cover, good.
I once had a $20,000.00 Mcintosh turntable.
It came with a dust cover, when I bought it from a stereo shop up in New York City a little over 32 years ago.
Granted that I was only 17 when I got it, I never really had problems with dust getting on it.
The only problem I had if any, was to keep my made from putting her car keys on it while I had a record on it.
But on top of that, almost 4 years ago, I walked in to House Of Stereo in Jacksonville Florida to pick up an amplifier that I had them to order for me.
The guy in the shop, showed me a trio of high end turntables.
The cheapest one being $1500, and the most expensive one costing as much as $5000.
What they all had in common with each other is, they all had dust covers that covered up the whole entire things.
I just thought that I would share that with the Hifi Family.
So, the car key thing…. she was perhaps made in Japan?
Actually Gavitas, no.
I was 20 years old in 1992 when I found her in Italy.
I brought her here to the United States.
I had to go throo getting her a green card and all of that, just so that, she could stay here legally.
She was 72 years old when I found her.
I had to build an equipment rack to hold all of my stereo components.
But the turntable had to be in the top of the rack with a led or if you will, a door that you could lock when the system wasn’t being used.
The front of the rack, had a door that locked too as well.
I think dust covers are good when your table is not being used to keep dust off the works, and especially to keep dust off the mat. Dust covers are bad while playing the turntable because they can resonate from the impact of sound waves from your speakers, and this can be transferred in to the table base and ultimately, even at a much lower lever, to the record and cartridge. This effect is even worse with the cover closed, because the air volume inside acts as a Helmholtz resonator and can make things worse. Some table designs are better than others at reducing this vibrational feedback from the dust cover, but I think they *all* sound better without the cover while playing. I love that my trusty original Roksan Xerxes has a dust cover, but I always take it off for a serious listening session. Cheers!
As several have already said… I use a dust cover to keep the table, and more importantly, the mat dust free. When it’s time to spin some vinyl, the dust cover gets removed and set aside until I’m done with the session. Then it goes back on until next time.
I think the question I would rather have Paul answer is why does he have what appears to be a dime sitting on the cartridge headshell of what I think is a $15K turntable?
Cartridges require a certain amount of headshell/tonearm mass depending on the cartridge being used. This is a cheap alternative to changing the headshell or tonearm to one with more mass or using another cartridge if the cartridge is not a match for the tonearm/headshell.
Understood, and this is how I handled it 50 years ago with my ‘maybe’ $150 Pioneer PL15D table (although, I used a penny). Just seems like there must be another reason they are doing this as even if they had a very light cartridge, my solution would have been to adjust the counterweight. Then if the counterweight is adjusted to its minimum, I’d call VPI and order the next lighter counterweight, and toss the dime in my change jar…
I don’t think adjusting the counterweight has anything to do with it. You can have the right stylus pressure and still not enough tonearm mass to be compatible with the cartridge. How do I know this? I stayed at a Holiday Inn yesterday. 🙂
Maybe so, just not anything I’ve ever come across…
Its Paul’s good luck dime, he wants to give it a lot of publicity and then auction it off on eBay with proceeds going to his favorite charity.
Having been involved in the design of the VPI HW-40 table that you show in the video, I was asked to integrate a dustcover as part of the 40th anniversary theme reflecting the earlier VPI designs. The cover was designed to integrate with the classic look of the table, be mechanically sound, and to provide smooth yet strong positional stability when opened at any angle. Functionally these goals were met and the tables were shipped including a dustcover. What was soon discovered was that the cover was a vibration sink, in that, whether it was open or closed while playing music, it absorbed vibration from the sound of the music in the room and transfer it directly into the top plate of the table. The vibration would then pass through the arm into the cartridge/record interface, where it became integrated into the music. The audible affect was not subtle, detracting from the neutral tonal qualities and low level resolving capabilities of this table. I’m thinking that 80’s high-end table designers noted this effect and that it had some influence on the disappearance of dustcovers from high performance turntables.
I have two questions: in which frequency range did the absorptions and reflections occur and in what order of magnitude were they? Second, why was the phenomenon not discovered and remedied during development? It all looks to me like “management by bananas” – selling unripe products and allowing them to mature at the customer’s location.
While very high-tech sounding, even if I were to answer your first question, the information would be meaningless. Simply put, the dustcover resonances are being excited by the energy of the sound in the room. Much like ringing a bell or banging on a speaker cabinet the physical dimensions and constraints determine what resonances are excited by this energy. Exactly what the audible effect is matters only in that you can hear it. Remove the cover and the effect goes away. Advanced analysis is pointless.
Question two: Based on dealer and customer input as to what the 40th anniversary table should encompass; I was asked to design a dustcover to be included. This I did. Among a hundred other details I was juggling I designed a good looking, properly function dustcover. Knowing that it might not be used by all, I made the installation and removal involve four 10-32 bolts that anyone with a modest technical skill could install or remove. The design also lent itself to being set in place and used as only a removable shell when the hinges are not installed. The dustcover being a toy, in my opinion, I concentrated more on the functional design and sonic performance of the table. The reviews speak for the musical results of what was achieved. See: https://connect.xfinity.com/appsuite/#!!&app=io.ox/mail&folder=default0//ufup3RPHX%5D14)Wh%7Dnjx(Prpq%7C
While it sounds like you are convinced of your own answer, questions still remain unanswered. The resonances that are excited by the energy of the sound in the room can be measured easily because we have the instruments to measure it. The ringing and the structure-borne sound transmission can be reduced by various steps, as happens in many other industrial areas. If one pays the same attention to the dust cover as one does to the turntable platter, then a solution would also be within reach. I think that many audiophiles therefore do not use the cover because the proud view of the acquired masterpiece is impaired.
This is not a matter of convincing myself of anything. I posted some empirical observations to a discussion on dustcovers. As to whether or not the problem can be solved: Yes. The measured frequency spectrum was low, and the amplitude of the vibration being applied to the plinth was high, coupled with the weight of the cover; it would be a significant challenge for any isolation design (re. added cost) to address. With a considerable effort, Isolators could be designed to address this.
In my last post I did point out that the decision to include a dustcover was made for marketing reasons, yet I did not point out that investing in an expensive and complicated cover isolation solution would have significantly raised the price of the table, going against the same marketing that set the price point of the table. Engineering is complicated by, compromise, costs, and deadlines.
I do not feel comfortable going any deeper into this than I already have as I am not representing VPI, only my own interests and experience. I was simply trying to contribute my experience to the discussion.
I have a new Rega P6 – has a clever removable dust cover (clicks in and out).
The sound difference on or off is certainly striking on my system – more open, better bass.
My answer would have been:
Dust covers protect the tables from dust and accidental damage.
They are not used on high end tables because their sail area combined with the two point fixation, especially in open status, generates a hell of resonance implied to the table over the dust cover from sound waves and even other mechanical stimulations. And this is just the most obvious bad influence of mechanical distortion needed to avoid for good sound from a turntable. If one wants to dig deeper in vinyl sound quality he has to go much further down the road of such bad influences.
I have a Clearaudio table which does not have a dustcover but I purchased a very nice heavy clear acrylic cover which sits on the rack, not the turntable, and has a cut out at the back for the cabling. Looks great and protects the turntable when not in use. Best compromise, I think. The only downside is that I keep forgetting to lower the cueing lever before putting it on and it wobbles about for a bit till I realise my mistake.
Perhaps wee all are old enough to remember juke boxes.
The juke boxes that were made between 1937 and 1977, were all turntable based juke boxes that played 45 records.
In spite of the fact that you had to feed them quarters in order to get them to play music for you, they all had their speakers integrated in to the cabinets.
There was something that the manufacturers done, to minimize the speaker vibrations to keep them from interfering with the playback of the records.
Granted that I don’t understand how it was done, all I know, is they done it.
But it was the stereo councils that were made for home entertainment use, that were plegged with mechanical problems like the ones being discussed here.
I live in a dusty house, with two dogs running around. My dust cover stays in place and I have no problem at all looking at it, in use or not.
If your turntable doesn’t have a dust cover there must be after market alternatives to cover it to keep dust off of it.
My Pro ject Genie 1.3 didn’t come with a cover but I believe all the RPM tables come that way.
This has been a very interesting discussion. My Rotel RP 3000 from the 70s came with a removable dust cover. I do recall trying to play albums with the dust cover down which did create very bad feedback due to the Helmholtz effect. It always sounded better removed however keeping dust off and preventing damage to the delicately balance tonearm was imperative.