Mike Disher's custom turntables

Mike Disher works with my pals at OpenRoad.tv, the fantastic travel video site for the American West. On the OpenRoad.tv forum, Mike posted about his unusual hobby, constructing beautiful high-end turntables. From his site:

About 5 years ago I decided to try my hand at building a custom turntable. Turntables and mechanical watch and clock movements fascinate me. I view them as functional pieces of kinetic art. I based my turntable design on the legendary Rega P3, and I created a new, custom acrylic plinth and a set of feet. I also devised a way to hide the motor, and I improved the motor mounting system. The plinth rests on small silicone dots, providing added isolation. The result was a very modern looking table. I called it the P3 Skeleton. Skeleton is a watchmaking term for a movement in which material is removed from the plates and bridges to reveal the inner workings. A fellow audio enthusiast saw this table at my house and offered to buy it on the spot. I did not sell it, but I was happy that others appreciated my work.

Link to Mike Disher's turntable page, Link to OpenRoad.TV's forum (Thanks, Jim Wirth!)

Previously on BB:
• OpenRoad.TV and Pesco visit the Musée Mécanique Link
• OpenRoad.TV: Natalie Zee Drieu of CRAFT Link

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by billy

, March 19, 2008 9:15 PM

very very nice work, mike !

#2 posted by batesman

, March 20, 2008 1:14 AM

possibly also inspired by these here turntables:

http://www.project-audio.com/main.php?list=turntables&cat=turntables&lang=en

#3 posted by hassan-i-sabbah , March 20, 2008 6:38 AM

Rega planar 3? Good idea but I would have went a bit more high end,still lovely bit of kit. Yankeekowtow- you are right we should stop listening to vinyl- after all,music is just a sound track to shopping after all innit? Looks like Dad didn't teach ye much boy! Don,t throw away good shit for something bright shiny and new (and small).

#4 posted by Moon , March 20, 2008 6:44 AM

Yeah, geez, Hassan, you are right. I HATE having my entire vinyl collection and my entire CD collection on one little portable shiny new thing instead of 600 vinyl albums and 400 CDS.

#5 posted by zuzu

, March 20, 2008 11:52 AM

All his designs use a belt drive instead of a direct drive stepper motor; that's useless for playing the turntable as an instrument.

It looks pretty though.

#6 posted by ill lich , March 20, 2008 12:14 PM

Although belt-drive systems (supposedly) insulate the platter from motor vibrations, the downside is that they wear out very quickly and tend to slip, thus adding to the wow-and-flutter of the recording.

(and face it #6 ZUZU-- you wouldn't be carting this thing off to any club gigs anyway, it won't even fit in a road-case, to say nothing of the cost of a hand-made turntable versus a stock Technics 1200).