Rock V Record Player

The Townshend

table, imposingly black in appearance, once again returned to the precision engineered roots of the original design. The massive composite platter involved PVC, machined aluminium, lead, damping materials and plaster: It was belt driven from an electronically controlled motor, and once again suspended by a fluid damped suspension on a plaster damped sub-chassis. Bearing was a development of the Mk II inverted design, but using a Tungsten Carbide insert in the tip of the post. The logo and speed indicators were LDR controlled to self adjust to ambient light conditions, with the whole mounted in a handsome timber and Perspex plinth. The trough and Excalibur arm were carried over almost unchanged but the fit, finish and presentation were fully commensurate with the high asking price, which didn’t seem to deter customers at all. Finally, the Rock’s sonic Perhaps ironically, it leaves a lasting homage to its heritage in the shape of its main bearing, which can be retro-fitted to the original Cranfield model. That ‘table used a variation on the original hydrodynamic design which was ultimately to prove problematic. The reference bearing used with a Gyrodec belt is the perfect substitute. Next up was the Rock Mk III, launched in 1994 and riding on the wave of the vinyl revival. Basically consisting of Mk II mechanicals and an acrylic platter built into a Seismic Sink isolation platform, it built on the classical simplicity of the donor unit, but added a more finished appearance and better isolation. It was a considerable success in the US, with close to 3000 being produced. The Rock Reference Master (or Mk IV in numerical terms) was a massive, stainless steel clad development of the original Reference. Offering fine pitch control over 33, 45 and 78 speeds, its two major innovations centred on the arm, which now offered motorized and remote control operation of VTA, complete with numerical readout, but more importantly, a cam actuated drive system that moved the arm-base in an arc to compensate for tracking error across the record. Within the plinth the suspension system had moved forward too, the oil-damped brass bellows finally replaced with air-damped coil springs, a technology familiar to anybody who rides a mountain bike. The problem with the fluid damping was that whilst it certainly damped motion it also acted to couple the suspended chassis to the plinth, just like the trough couples the arm. The airdamping provides far greater isolation. In practice, the Reference Master was all but stillborn, only one ever being built. However, its importance lies in the bridge it provided to the Mk V, establishing new techniques and materials to further advance the design. The V might not be as lavishly complex as the Master, but it will ultimately offer many of the same facilities and solutions. Whether those options include a zero tracing error arm we’ll have to wait and see, but motorized VTA is definitely on the way…