The bearing is the heart of every turn­table. Although the bea­ring design is of such great impor­tance, its deve­lop­ment – from the view of physics – is often charac­teri­zed by impre­cise to wrong approa­ches. Any conven­tional bearing that is con­fronted with a heavier platter is extremely sensitive in terms of hand­ling. It also faces a mecha­nical chal­lenge that is mainly to be found in the contact area of the thrust plate and bearing ball. In other words: the combi­nation of the high platter weight and the very small ball sur­face causes an enor­mous pres­sure in the very small contact area, which simply pushes the lubri­cating oil away.

The result: too much friction, too much noise, too much vibra­tion and rapid wear. Analo­gists seeking sal­vation in an ‘inver­ted bea­ring’ are mis­gui­ded by a mar­keting trick: the main source of noise within a con­ven­tional bearing design is located at the pivot point of the platter axis and the thrust plate, about 4 inches away from the record. By inver­ting the bearing, this noise source is taken closer to the platter direct below the vinyl surface and thus into the activity area of the cartridge – defi­nitely not a good idea. More­over, this ‘reversal’ causes a veri­table lubri­cation problem thanks to gravity: the oil is floating away at the contact surface.